It seems like the gang of trying-to-prove-their-Liberal-cred bloggers are really hyping this Verizon thing. Friedersdorf writes this morning:

Thank You, Unknown Patriot, for Exposing the Spying on Verizon Customers

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Who helped the journalists obtain that “top secret” court order?

Hopefully, that’s going to stay secret for a long time. As Charlie Savage and Edward Wyatt note in the NY Times, “The order was marked TOP SECRET//SI//NOFORN, referring to communications-related intelligence information that may not be released to noncitizens. That would make it among the most closely held secrets in the federal government, and its disclosure comes amid a furor over the Obama administration’s aggressive tactics in its investigations of leaks.” In other words, it was likely leaked by someone who took a personal risk exposing it.

Why?

It is impossible to know. But it isn’t hard to identify likely motives. Perhaps the leaker felt morally repulsed by the knowledge that the government is spying on millions of innocent citizens in secret, something normally associated with Communist and fascist regimes, not democratic republics. (It’s true that the order doesn’t cover the content of calls, and that a separate warrant is needed to connect the information to actual users — not that we’d know if they sought those, or if officials now or in the future just ignored that legal requirement to spy on individuals. One wonders what Richard Nixon would’ve done with access to all that information.)

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I’ve not followed this story closely, but I’ve been under the impression that this court order was just following what the (presumed Constitutional) law directed.

The gang may not like the law, but if the Obama administration follows it does that make him like Nixon?