A public conversation last week between author and journalist Ron Suskind and former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill provided Pittsburghers useful insights into the inner workings of the Bush administration.

Mr. Suskind is the author of a new book, "The One Percent Doctrine," and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. The conversation took place at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland under the sponsorship of Gilda's Club of Western Pennsylvania, a center for people living with cancer.

What the Pittsburgh audience heard from Mr. Suskind and Mr. O'Neill about the high degree of politicization of decision-making in the administration was shocking to some extent. The two speakers are extremely well-informed about what happens at the top in Washington and have excellent contacts there. People who don't live and work in that environment could not know what factors rule when people like President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld determine whether the United States will go to war or not, putting on the line the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers.

They said that when plans were being made within the administration to go to war with Iraq, no facts entered into the decision. With respect to the public, the previously sacred principle of "informed consent" was not honored by Mr. Bush and his subordinates. Instead, it was a question of carefully selecting what information would be put before the public to sell the point of view that the administration wanted to put forward -- that war with Iraq was necessary and never mind whether it had a basis in fact or not. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003, an eventual humiliation to him, was a perfect case in point.

Mr. Suskind and Mr. O'Neill made the point that in policy-making, good process creates good outcomes. If a thesis is put forward, then examined critically by a number of informed people from different points of view, it is more likely that a sound decision will be reached. This process has become debased under the Bush administration and the damage to U.S. credibility abroad and governance at home is severe.

Mr. Suskind closed the discussion by reminding his Pittsburgh audience that the public remains sovereign, must insist that it be informed and must take back ownership of the future of the country. That can be achieved by the exercise of their citizenship at the ballot box -- a very timely recommendation in light of the impending elections.