I’ve been hearing pundits from all corners defend the secrecy of the congressional “super committee” that is meeting to make fast-track recommendations on how to find $1.5 trillion. The reason that these elected representatives have to meet in the dark, they explain, is that otherwise they won’t be willing to buck the party line on raising taxes (from the Republican side) or on cutting entitlements (from the Democratic side). According to this logic, they can’t possibly reach an agreement if the people are watching because they will be too worried about their re-elections to act in good faith.

To which I reply: really?

So we are going to let them meet in secret because they don’t have enough backbone to meet in light of day? Don’t you think that if we can’t trust them to say what they really think in the open, that they are exactly the sort of…