Why A Criminal Act?

I've been trying for a couple of days now to understand exactly why the President's clan would overtly and knowing commit a criminal act not just once but 30 or more times and then admit it and tell us that they are going to do it again. This is very difficult to understand since there arelegal and ways to do the domestic spying in use and very effective. You can even spy and get permission later under the FISA rules.
What would require the President to avoid using the legal method? What if he and his cohorts were sure the FISA court would not approve of the targets? It would seem likely to me that that would be the only reason to break the law and sidestep the FISA court.
Holden beat me to it and published a list of some of the targets that would probably not have been approved by the FISA court.

The following is an incomplete list of individuals whose telephone calls and e-mail messages were monitored by the National Security Agency pursuant to an executive order signed by George Bush allowing surveillance of American citizens without a warrant.

Joseph Wilson
Valerie Plame
John Kerry
John Edwards
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
Al Gore
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Richard Clarke
Colin Powell
John McCain
Chuck Hagel
Michael Moore
Cindy Sheehan
Brent Scrowcroft

I believe he missed a few names though. Just off the top of my head...Ted Kennedy, Patrick Fitzgerald, Jimmy Carter, Russ Feingold to name a few. How many others do you think are on the list that FISA wouldn't approve?