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Politics Rep. Don Young gets verbal smack from witness

Don Young confrontation with witness during House hearingThere are some things much of the public would really like to say to members of Congress. As Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) found out on Friday, House hearings can be the best opportunity.

Dr. Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Rice University, let him have it.

From Politico:

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.”

Comments (3)

  • brickmoon
    Posted on November 21, 2011 at 4:41am

    Perhaps there was an abundance of unprofessionality on both sides, but Mr. Brinkley’s quarrels were less substantive. If I were Rep. Young, I would probably have briefly apologized immediately, but if I were Brinkley, I would have let it go until it was my turn to speak, thereby demonstrating more professionalism.

    I think the last two paragraphs on the WaPo Lifestyle blog covering the incident summarize the situation pretty well. I argue that it suggests that Brinkley’s repeated umbrage and obstinacy, as well as his attitude, reflected in a revealing, apparent ad hominem attack afterward, overshadowed any significant substance he may have provided had he shown a little more deference:

    A spokesman for Young later called the episode “a publicity stunt by Mr. Brinkley in order to sell books.” Witnesses, he said, “are invited to testify before Congress to answer questions and provide insight, not repeatedly interrupt.”

    Brinkley was unapologetic when we reached him, calling Young “a crazy zealot for molesting the refuge” and saying he wished he “could have gone mano-a-mano” with him. “I was hoping for the chance to get into a heated debate with him, but, alas, it’s hard in that forum.”

    Report Post » brickmoon  
  • softunderbelly
    Posted on November 20, 2011 at 11:18am

    Actually, I find fault with the congressman. First of all, he should have had the professionalism to know his witness. Secondly, common courtesy demands an apology if you get the name wrong. Third, and probably most important, the congressman’s arrogance is an indicator that perhaps he, too, has been in Washington too long. As for Brinkley’s condescending correction, well, when’s right, he’s right.

    Report Post »  
  • brickmoon
    Posted on November 19, 2011 at 7:50pm

    “I know you only received a B.A. in Education before I was born, so you, some dummy from Alaska, couldn’t possibly understand how much an important History professor like me, who wrote the propagan … uh, historical account, “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War,” knows about how drilling in a postage-stamp patch of frozen Alaska wilderness, on the very edge of Porcupine caribou calving grounds would be like paving over the Grand Canyon…”

    Report Post » brickmoon  

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