Candidates wallowing in secrecy.

The recent presidential race featured four men, each of whom possesses a credential that none wanted to discuss, the membership of each in one or more secret organizations.

The candidates' connections to these secret organizations should have been a campaign issue, and the candidates should have been asked tough questions regarding what obligations these connections may entail. In fact, media scrutiny of this issue could have provided the candidates with an opportunity to clear the air regarding any possible hidden agendas or wrongdoing. But when President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry were asked (in separate nationally televised interview programs) about their membership in the same secret organization, neither was willing to talk about it. Both Bush and Kerry hold membership in Yale University's Skull and Bones Society, a secret group enlisting a mere 15 seniors each year.

Even under direct questioning, neither man would say any thing about the society. NBC's Tim Russert questioned Kerry about Skull and Bones in August 2003. Noting that both his guest, then contemplating a run for the White House, and Mr. Bush, already the nation's chief executive, were both Bonesmen, the moderator of Meet the Press asked, "What does that tell us?" Kerry promptly responded, "Not much, because it's a secret." That ended the discussion.

In February 2004, Russert directed a similar inquiry at President Bush. Half laughing, the president said, "It's so secret we can't talk about it." Russert gently pressed Mr. Bush but got nothing more out of him, and the matter was again dropped. The oath that binds them obviously requires silence. What else it requires remains a closely guarded secret among all who have ever belonged to the 180-year-old group.

So, should a Bonesman who refuses to discuss his membership in this secret society be elected to the highest office in the land? Early 20th-century Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once warned, "Secrecy necessarily breeds suspicion." And former President Harry Truman went further when he stated, "Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix."

The two major vice presidential candidates are also fettered by secret entanglements. For vice president in 2004, the Democratic Party offered John Edwards. With little more than an engaging personality to commend him for the position of vice president, the one-term North Carolina senator emerged from near obscurity to gain his party's nod to be "a heartbeat away" from the Oval Office. Earlier this year, Edwards attended the Bilderberg conference, a secret gathering of political and monied bigwigs from the United States and Europe. Begun by David Rockefeller in 1954 at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Holland, these annual meetings are always held in strict secrecy at a plush resort. Regular attendees include Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, leading media heavyweights, and ambitious politicians. In 1991, as he was gearing up for a run at the White House, Bill Clinton attended a session in Baden-Baden, Germany. Suspiciously, Edwards got his party's nod toward the position of vice president just after attending the conference.

For secrecy, the Bilderbergers are virtually unmatched. All who attend are sworn to seal their lips and keep their pens unused. The host hotels are cleansed of any outsiders; service personnel are carefully screened; and the trash is burned. As the group's executive secretary, Maja Banck-Polderman, stated from her Holland office, the attendees "do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk."

The Republican vice presidential choice, Dick Cheney, has a resume that includes more than 20 years of membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, even two tours serving on its board of directors. Fellow CFR veterans, now numbering over 4,000, include former Presidents Ford, Carter, Bush the elder, and Clinton. Its current roster of members lists the names of over 500 government officials and over 200 media luminaries. Democrat John Kerry has long been a member.

As the unquestioned leader of the internationalist establishment, the CFR has always operated with a "Non-Attribution Rule." Simply stated, this rule says that what goes on at its meetings must be kept secret unless otherwise noted. In 2002, then-CFR President Leslie Gelb erupted publicly when the New York Times disclosed information discussed at one of its invitation-only meetings. The CFR's closed door gatherings, held in New York and in Washington, regularly feature visits from cabinet officials, military chieftains, foreign dignitaries, and others. But the public isn't allowed to know what is said.

Knowing that each of 2004's candidates for America's highest offices belongs to one or more secret organizations, think about the admonition that William Cullen Bryant gave in 1837: he said that people have "a right to discuss freely and openly ... all political questions, and to examine and animadvert upon all political institutions." In the absence of such openness, he declared, "we must fall at once into despotism and anarchy." Maybe we won't fall "at once," but secrecy of the type described above means we're on the way.