Into the wee hours of Wednesday morning I watched the C-SPAN replays of the two Petraeus/Crocker Senate hearings from Tuesday. Sitting on my sofa, bleary-eyed and jotting down a note or two, catching a few winks every now and then, I probably missed more than I saw, but, nevertheless, I came away with a few impressions.

A note on style: I am on the road with student government this weekend, working off a laptop, thinking about national politics during the cracks, and writing with my beefy fingers on a small keyboard. In that vein, here are a few less than polished observations:

--Unfortunately, I missed what was easily the best line of the day, Joe Lieberman: "see no progress, hear no progress, speak no progress." Brilliantly succinct and devastatingly accurate.

--A General Impression: I like Ryan Crocker. I mean I really like Ryan Crocker. Of course, we love Petreaus (and, of course, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates); Petraeus and Gates are Grant and Stanton (with Ph.D.s)--they even have an "Anaconda" Plan.

But Ryan Crocker is less immediately appealing; he is less obviously brilliant. He is more working class. He does not have a Ph.D. from Princeton or Georgetown--rather, a BA from a low-profile college in Washington (as in state not District). Almost every one of his sentences begins with "ah, ah, ih, ih" and features an "um, um, um" somewhere in the middle of the thought, but so what? This non-descript fellow with the halting delivery gets things right. He is not especially smooth--but he is unflappable. He is quietly competent and, evidently, incredibly talented at getting to the crux of any challenge. Crocker is an acquired taste--but I think I finally get him.

In the face of the most turgid, self-serving, and inherently antagonistic questioning, Crocker stood his ground, speaking truth to politically informed ignorance and under-stating simple truths:

--this is tough and complicated

--AQI is reeling, which is a good thing

--much is left to do, and it will not be easy, but it is worth doing

Part II Preview:

--My number one pet peeve with the Senate hearing format?

--Opposition Talking Points.

--Where did we get those GOP Foreign Relations Committee members (nearly all duds and newbies)? Among other problems, the Party of Lincoln is desperately low on talent. We lost a lot of intellectual force and personality in 2006. But back to my point: with friends like these...

More to come...