Plame was never an under cover field agent. She was a CT, desk jobber, and she let anyone in the DC area or ?? know that she worked for the CIA.
When real agents get exposed, they and their family are in real danger.
Her biggest danger was a bad hair day before whining on left wing tv, ABCNNBCBS that she had been exposed as an agent or getting a paper cut:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/07/18/was-valerie-plame-really-covert-agent.html
Yup!