I know, I know, it’s a revelation:
Televised congressional hearings often serve as a platform for members of Congress to berate, bloviate and showboat for the cameras, but at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, historian Douglas Brinkley wouldn’t stand for it.
The topic at hand was drilling in the the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The trouble began when Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young misstated Brinkley’s name after referring to the hearing as “an exercise in futility.” In a certain breach of protocol, Brinkley cut him off.
Young didn’t like that one bit.
“You just be quiet,” Young demanded.
“You don’t own me,” Brinkley shot back. “I pay your salary!”
The worst thing about it is that this report actually downplays the obnoxiousness of the representative. He didn’t just misstate the historian’s name, he confused the man with the university. And what could have simply been acknowledged as an innocent slip of the tongue instead revealed the ugly and arrogant face of the elected class that believes it is beyond all accountability.
If I was an Alaskan, I would want to be sure that Don Young was never mistaken for my “representative” again.