So what did you miss in this hearing? Carl Levin worried about the size and composition of the Afghan security forces not being in a near-term position to hold what the U.S. military clears. The Taliban have about 24,000-27,000 full time fighters. And they make more money than do the Afghan security forces — which, from my perspective, is the single most important strategic fact to emerge from these hearings. Eikenberry clarified that the insurgents’ money comes from the opium trade, their shadow-government taxation of Afghan civilians and foreign aid, especially from the Gulf states. McCain doesn’t like the July 2011 date for beginning the security transition but when McChrystal defended it forcefully he agreed to fall back. Lindsey Graham said something juvenile about Bagram. McChrystal said that he “regret[s]” any perception that his London IISS talk was an attempt to undermine the Afghanistan strategy debates. Joe Lieberman didn’t say anything I thought worth paying attention to.

Home news: I wrote 24 Windy posts total today, and 15 minutes ago I filed an 800-word wrap-up. [Update: Here's that director's cut.]  TPM’s video editor Ben Craw tweeted at me that I’m falling off, because we collaborated on 30 posts daily during the ’07 Petraeus hearings, with video on each. Of course, without the irreplaceable Craw I’m like Petraeus with no Crocker or McChrystal with no Eikenberry, Katrina with no FEMA, Martin with no Gina…

Finally: any media organization that uses the headline “McChrystal Clear” or some such is going to get called the fuck out as lazy and cliche-reliant. Put your back into it!