This might seem like a silly question, what with Congress just now starting to gnash its teeth and gearing up to launch hearings on the NSA program. But consider the following items:

Item one: this morning James Risen and Eric Lichtblau follow up their "blockbuster" story last Friday by reporting that it's likely a few fully domestic calls have been snared during the course of the NSA's secret program:

But in at least one instance, someone using an international cellphone was thought to be outside the United States when in fact both people in the conversation were in the country. Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified, would not discuss the number of accidental intercepts, but the total is thought to represent a very small fraction of the total number of wiretaps that Mr. Bush has authorized without getting warrants. In all, officials say the program has been used to eavesdrop on as many as 500 people at any one time, with the total number of people reaching perhaps into the thousands in the last three years.

The article does nothing to further the impression that the Bush administration has been involved in widespread, abusive eavedropping that is somehow trampling on the civil liberties of average law-abiding Americans. In fact, it does the opposite, suggesting that 1) the NSA has been very judicious in its use of resources and 2) it is an exceedingly difficult job for even the most advanced experts we have to try and keep up with possible terrorist-related communications in today's complex technology environment.

Item two: Drudge is headlining a report that while in office both Clinton and Carter signed executive orders authorizing domestic surveillance without a court order. Needless to say, revelations like this - which never seem to be reported initially - tend to strip the sensationalist shine off the NSA surveillance story rather quickly and put it more context.

Item three: Having been scooped on the NSA story altogether, the best the Washington Post can do today is to report that a Clinton-appointed FISA judge submitted his resignation yesterday - possibly as a protest to revelations about the NSA program. This story may be news, but the fact the Post slapped it above the fold on A1 instead of on A10 where it belongs suggests a rather forced effort to 1) join the frenzy and 2) give this story some additional legs.

Where does this leave us? The story certainly isn't going away any time soon, but that doesn't mean it may not end up filed away in the "more heat than light" category in retrospect.  Some Congressional Democrats have predictably (and foolishly) jumped out to far edge of the political envelope with loose talk about impeachment (as have liberal members of the media like Joe Conason) but that's nothing more than a deranged fever-swamp fantasy.

Where this story goes depends on the details, of course, many of which we won't know for some time. But if the administration is on even the thinnest plot of Constitutional ground (my impression is that they are, though I'm not a legal expert), then it's hard to see the story going very far.  What's more, Vice President Cheney may be right about the final result: "So there's a backlash pending, I think the backlash is going to be against those who are suggesting somehow we shouldn't take these steps in order to defend the country."