I was relieved to hear that my younger son passed the age of majority and lived. He arrived at the age of majority at college, and I had been concerned that he might not make it.

I called him the afternoon of the day before the big day and told him not to do anything stupid. I wanted to be sure he had some friends with him, and that he would not be driving, and that he would not try to drink 21 shots of anything.

He cautiously said he would keep things under control; after all, he would not be �legal� until the stroke of midnight. What could go wrong in the two hours before last call for alcohol?

I swallowed, remembering an admonition that I have found to be perfectly true down through the years: nothing good ever happens after midnight .

When we talked yesterday, he was circumspect about the details. I got more from my older boy, whose birthday is upon us today. It was pretty colorful, and it involved a quick trip to the big porcelain telephone. That is good. The body has a remarkable facility for purging itself of poisons, and only those campaigns that overwhelm the natural defenses can bring on damage or death.

I asked if he was going to settle down, now that he is legal, and he said, �Sure, Dad. Of course.�

I almost believe him, though he is a chip off the old blockhead and therefore not to be trusted completely. But it still is one thing I can cross off the list of things to worry about, although it opens up a few more. That is the way of things, each door you pass through opening up another vista of doors.

That is a good thing, since at some point, the door opens and there is nothing at all.

Like this morning. They trotted out domestic policy advisor Karl Rove last Friday to talk to the Republican National Committee, a safe audience. It was a bit of a coming out party, after all the hiding under the desk, wondering if he was going to be indicted with Scooter Libbey on the Valerie Plame identity disclosure.

He must feel fairly relaxed, or be realizing that it is time to start shaping the battlefield for the election in November. He made a stinging attack on the Democrats for being soft on al Qaida.

It was a good way to frame the debate, since that is not what this is about. It is about the NSA monitoring program, the details of which we know little about. I like public debates about secret matters. They appeal to my sense of the surreal.

Anyhow, this is vintage Rove, on the attack, pressing an issue that is tangential to the actual point. Like most Americans, I am perfectly happy to support �extraordinary measures,� if they actually forestall another attack. But the contention of the Democrats is that the President broke the law. There are reams of citations about it- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the law most mentioned, though they throw U.S. Code Title 50 in for good measure.

But since we don’t know what is being done, it is hard to tell with any certainty that anything is wrong. I have some friends in London , for example, and reportedly one of the things being monitored are e-mails across the ocean. Some of my friends who embrace conspiracy theories have taken to saying nasty things about the NSA, taunting them, with the assumption that their mail is being read.

I don’t know what to think about that. I have long since abandoned any notion that I have any real privacy, and try to keep my failings to the misdemeanor level.

I had to ask, since I have a pal who is still in the business. He told me what is going on, at a level that is a little deeper than the New York Times and less than what would be a disclosure of classified information.

I have no reason to believe that he is not telling me the truth. Here is his version: � Once authorized by Congress, it is the President’s job to take action as necessary, keeping Congress informed as appropriate.  NSA information was passed to the FBI for action. Reports were generated, with US Person info redacted.  For those of us who needed that redacted info for analytical purposes, there was a process for getting it.  Once we had the US Person info, it was subject to our Intel oversight policies and our established procedures for disseminating sensitive information.  Mission and civil liberties were balanced.�

I take him at his word, since he is a Great American, with the same reverence for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that I hold.

They are going to trot out General Mike Hayden today to explain it, though not as clearly as that. He is the number two-official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,, but he was Director of the National Security Agency when the program began. The Attorney General Gonzales is going to give a legal opinion, too, and the President is going out to Fort Meade to show support for the troops.

I’m OK with that, and based on what my friend told me, I am comfortable with the program. The other thing is the political process, and I am not quite so sanguine about that.

Karl Rove is pulling out the old playbook that has won elections before. He will present a systematically crafted argument in simple, if exaggerated terms. I can already hear it, running through my mind: Democrats soft on terror!

When I consider how far away November is, I feel the same gag reflex rising that got my son safely through his birthday.

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com

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