On Friday, during day two of the House Natural Resources Committee hearings regarding oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the fur flew.
Congressman Don Young called the testimony of Dr. Douglas Brinkley from Rice University "garbage" and then mistakenly referred to him as "Dr. Rice."
Dr. Brinkley immediately interrupted Rep. Young, later saying because he wanted to "correct the record" about his name. It may have ended up as water under the bridge, but the professor did it with a more than a bit of sass. He said that Rice was a university, not his name, and retorted, "I know you went to Yuba (Junior) College and couldn't graduate."
That last part may have been what especially set Young off. He did in fact graduate. According to his official biography, Young earned an Associate's Degree from Yuba and a Bachelor's from Chico State.
A clearly angry Young countered by saying, "I'll call you anything I want to call you when you sit in that chair. You just be quiet," repeating the last part a few times.
"You don't own me," Dr. Brinkley said. "I pay your salary. I work for the private sector and you work for the taxpayer."
Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) stepped in to break it up and give everyone a short refresher on the topic of congressional comity.
Watch the exchange below, via CSPAN (skip to the 31:15 mark if you're just looking for the conflict). And find transcripts of the entire hearing, one of which shows the exchange continuing even after Young stepped away from the the hearing, here from the House Natural Resources Committee, or excerpted here by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.