Lugar Calling For Investigation of NSA Wiretaps

Richard Lugar (R-IN), the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has followed Senator Arlen Specter's (R-PA) lead in questioning the legality of the Bush administration's program of spying on American citizens without the required court orders.

Lugar was asked about it when appearing on CNN’s Late Edition:

Wolf Blitzer: So you want hearings? You want hearings?

Lugar: I do. I think this is an appropriate time, without going back and should the president have ever tried to listen to a call coming from Afghanistan, probably of course. And in the first few weeks we made many concessions in the Congress because we were at war and we were under attack. We still have the possibility of that going on so we don’t want to obviate all of this, but I think we want to see what in the course of time really works best and the FISA Act has worked pretty well from the time of President Carter’s day to the current time.

Lugar joins Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Specter – the big guy in this equation, as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee – in saying that hearings are necessary to examine the constitutionality of Bush's actions and whether the NSA wiretaps amount to criminal wrongdoing.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that the Alito confirmation hearings can wait.