Rep. Don Young gets verbal smack from witness

There 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."