''Dean slams Bush on town-hall meetings''

"Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said yesterday that President Bush’s policy of excluding non-Republicans from town-hall meetings on Social Security reform was “not an American thing to do." Dean spoke at the House Democrats’ weekly meeting for 15 minutes and took questions from lawmakers, according to several sources inside the well-attended closed-door gathering. He made the comments about the town-hall meetings at a press conference after the closed-door session. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), meanwhile, a vehement opponent of the Iraq war, raised the issue of how Iraq should be discussed in light of recent developments there."-from the article in Thursday's The Hill.