'You just be quiet,' Don Young told a Rice University professor on Friday. Prof to Young: 'I pay your salary'

Ever wanted to tell a congressman in person that they work for you, the taxpayer?

Well, Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University professor, certainly did, although perhaps the middle of a House hearing wasn't the best time and place.


At a Natural Resources Committee hearing Friday on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) mistakenly addressed the professor as "Dr. Rice" while calling his testimony "garbage."

Brinkley interrupted, saying: "It's Dr. Brinkley, Rice is a university," and "I know you went to Yuba [Community College in California] and couldn't graduate — "

Then it was Young's turn to interrupt. "I'll call you anything I want to call you when you sit in that chair," he told the witness. "You just be quiet."

Brinkley countered: "You don't own me. I pay your salary. I work for the private sector and you work for the taxpayer."

Panel chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) intervened, asking Young to suspend and — after being interrupted several times by the witness — threatening to remove Brinkley from the panel unless he agreed to only speak when asked to reply to questions.

According to Young’s office, the congressman earned an associate degree from Yuba Junior College in 1952 and a bachelor’s degree in teaching at Chico State College in 1958 after a stint in the U.S. Army.

Watch the exchange, starting at 31:15.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 6:42 p.m. on November 18, 2011.