OPEN MEETINGS ALWAYS SERVE GOVERNMENT BEST

President Bush appointed 16 members to a commission on the future of Social Security, with one of the co-chairs being Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the distinguished former Democratic senator from New York.

Lately the commission has made news in attempting to close some meetings of its sub-groups.

The commission planned to split into two groups for closed meetings in which they would discuss fiscal and administrative issues relating to establishing personal Social Security accounts. Then the commission members would join for a meeting of the full commission open to the public.

All this is faintly reminiscent of the massive and massively secret commission to reform the national health-care system that was convened back in 1993 by Hillary Clinton shortly after Bill Clinton became president.

It's understandable why well-intentioned government representatives want to meet behind closed doors. There is a sense that discussions held away from the spotlight of public and news-media scrutiny will be more frank.

But secrecy didn't serve the public well in 1993, and that commission was ultimately ordered by a court to open its deliberations. That episode should inform the deliberations of President Bush's commission on the future of Social Security.

Its meetings all of them should be open to the public.