QGA Senior Director Jim Manley: Following Louis Brandeis’s famous saying that sunlight is the best of disinfectants, some in the media and so called “good government” groups have begun a drumbeat of criticism following the super committee’s two days of closed-doors meetings earlier this week. One reporter commented in Politico on September 27, “As 12 lawmakers tackle the historic task of slashing at least 1.2 trillion from the nation’s deficit, they have spent lots of time behind closed doors, speaking almost nothing of their proceeding while leaving behind little more than a trail of sandwich wrappers and unanswered questions.”
Image credit: Ricochet.com
As a 21 year veteran of Capitol Hill who’s had a ringside seat to more than my fair share of high stakes negotiations, all I can say is: thank goodness. The easiest and most politically expedient thing in the world to do would have been to buckle to demands for absolute openness and transparency. But in this day and age, with a political process that is on the ropes and a media culture that insists on tweeting all things great and small with no time for context and nuance, this would have been a recipe for disaster. Instead, the super committee decided, correctly, that the only way that they are going to meet their goal is to give themselves the space necessary to get to a point where each and every one of the tough votes they will take will be done in public.