Historian and Professor Doug Brinkley made Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) really really mad during a heated exchange at a House hearing, when Brinkley mocked Young for going to community college.
Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and author of “The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom 1879-1960,” was testifying last week at a House Natural Resources Committee meeting over the effects of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Things went south when Young called Brinkley “Mr. Rice” and said his testimony is “garbage.” Brinkley then goes on the attack: “It’s Dr. Brinkley. Rice is a university. I know you went to Yuba College and couldn’t graduate.”
Young and Brinkley then had the following exchange, if you can call yelling over each other an exchange:
Young: I’ll call you anything I want to call you while you sit in that chair. You just be quiet. You be quiet.
Brinkley: You don’t own me. I pay your salary.
Young: I don’t own you, but I can tell you right now–
Brinkley: I work for the private sector, you work for the–
After Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) cuts them off, Young says he’s “really pissed right now” and yells at Brinkley a little bit more. Watch:
As Gawker points out, according to Young’s official bio, he did graduate with an associates degree from Yuba Junior College in 1952.
