Come again?

In the NSA hearings, Grassley called the Plame leak a "two-bit nothin'" compared to the NSA leak exposing the illegal, warrantless surveillance of American citizens. I feel like I'm just smashing my head against the wall here, but once again: the crime in the Plame case was the leak itself (and now the web of lies surrounding it). It exposed a covert CIA operative's identity, which compromised national security. The crime in the NSA case is the activity the leak revealed: that our executive, unchecked, ordered the illegal wiretapping of American citizens. Even if they were only spying on terrorists, the defense could point out the surveillance was illegal, and that evidence would be thrown out. What is the point? And who are they spying on? We don't know, but whoever leaked the information does and took a huge risk to inform the public of this program.

Also, comparisons of presidential decisions in regards to communications interceptions prior to FISA's passing are totally irrelevant. So SHUT UP, Gonzales.