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Here are some excerpts from Senator Coleman’s hard-hitting intensive meek interrogation questioning chat with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker during yesterday’s hearings. These come from a transcript from C-SPAN’s coverage. Just look at how Norm did Minnesota proud:

Captain Marcus Mainz, he was at the uh — joint security station sabotage right in Ramadi. … It was - he was rebuilding a city. As a former mayor, I understood what he was trying to do.

Yes, Norm’s comparing his stint in St. Paul to Captain Mainz attempting to rebuild (and we mean “rebuild” literally here, it’s a war zone) Ramadi. Don’t believe me? Read the full context below the break. There’s more:

And so, as we kinda of, listen to the American people on this issue, what I think we do need, we don’t even have now in spite of this testimony, is, Ambassador, you uh, objective measures of progress. It’s one thing to say that, well, benchmarks aren’t an end to themselves, but can you offer us — can we lay on the table something, so that when we have the next downturn and we have the next pull out and we have the next fissure between Sunni and Shia, that we at least have some objective measures to say that we are on a path to progress?

Okay, at first impression this doesn’t seem that ridiculous but that might be just because of all the “kinda”s and “you uh”s get in the way of parsing the meaning. What this whole windy block of monologue is asking is whether we can have some objective measures for progress the next time there’s a downturn, pull out, or fissure between Sunni and Shia. Essentially, we’re kicking the can down the road because how dare we actually evaluate progress now at the time set months ago to evaluate progress.

It seems to me that this has become the Administration’s game-plan: kick the can down the road. If they can create the appearance of being evaluated and get through the evaluation with some token concessions as to difficult to measure objectives, they can just come back months down the road and say again, “we just need a little more time.” Like the administration, Coleman here is trying to create the illusion of evaluation where in reality he’s just giving that can one more hard kick.

Full transcript of Senator Coleman’s question:
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Senator Coleman: Thank General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. First, thank you for your extraordinary service. General, I will say to you that I found the attacks on your ‚ on your credibility, personal attacks, by Moveon.org to be really despicable and I would hope that it would be roundly rejected and we need to put the politics aside on this issue if we can, and listen to your troops on the ground and try to figure out the way forward. I had a chance when I was in Ramadi, about nine days ago, to listen to some of those troops on the ground, one of them was a Captain Marcus Mainz, he was at the uh — joint security station sabotage right in Ramadi. Marines are good not just at killing foreign fighters and Al Qaeda, but he was rebuilding a town. Bulletin boards in the neighborhood, and he had a loudspeaker system to at times play the Iraqi national anthem. It was - he was rebuilding a city. As a former mayor, I understood what he was trying to do. I met with the mayor of Ramadi, who was talking about they got Lake Habbaniyah there and he was talking about a resort area. Well, every one of his buildings are full of bullet holes, that’s a long-term vision. And that’s my — I appreciate the hope, but here’s the concern. Ambassador Crocker you talk-about it’s gonna take time. It’s gonna take time. between now and next ‚ uh, uh ‚ March and April, there are gonna be ups and downs in Iraq. There- There maybe more folks who pull out of government, I- I suspect we’ll see efforts by Al Qaeda, and they have the ability to commit massive violence, massive violence. They may be on the run, but they are clearly not out. And so, as we kinda of, listen to the American people on this issue, what I think we do need, we don’t even have now in spite of this testimony, is, Ambassador, you uh, objective measures of progress. It’s one thing to say that, well, benchmarks aren’t an end to themselves, but can you offer us — can we lay on the table something, so that when we have the next downturn and we have the next pull out and we have the next fissure between Sunni and Shia, that we at least have some objective measures to say that we are on a path to progress? This is about, we’re talking about reconciliation, about power sharing. It’s power sharing. It’s reconciliation perhaps between Sunni and Shia, it’s — in Baghdad, it is power sharing between central government in Bahgdad and Anbar, it’s power sharing, and the southern provinces between Shia and Shia. So that’s the, so for you my question would be, can you offer us — can we put on the table objective measures that we can then look at and come back to when things get shaky to determine if we are on the course to success? And general, for you, it would be perhaps the same thing. Americans want to see light at the end of the tunnel. And it’s one thing to say, and I applaud — the troop drawdown this year. I applaud the fact we’ll be at pre-surged levels next year. But again, because there are going to be these attacks and there are going to be these things that clearly undermine American confidence that we are in fact continuing with progress, we need to see some plan out there. The peace institute, had a, which was composed of many of the folks involved in the Iraqi study group, they had ‚ they came out with something the other day that said we could get down to half the number of troops we have now in three years, a total turning over of bases in five years — they don’t say it, but i suspect you’d have to have the UN in there, we’re gonna be in iraqi a long time. With a s much as more possible it doesn’t have to be America fighting the fight for the Iraqis. So, General, is it for you, could we get a longer- term division? can we get a long-term plan? can we say that yeah we can be down to half our troops in three years. We can get to five years we could be turning over our bases and some other paradigm? But, I think we need something a little more than, say, give us more time to come back again in the fall. So, ambassador, if you could respond, and general, if could you could respond.