Dr. Douglas Brinkley, the Rice University professor who earlier this month got into a heated confrontation with Alaska Rep. Don Young during a Congressional hearing on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is fanning the flames of their sudden feud.
A week ago, Young and Brinkley got testy with one another after Young incorrectly called Dr. Brinkley "Dr. Rice," and then referred to the professor's testimony on ANWR as "garbage." Brinkley confronted Young, correcting him on his name and incorrectly claiming that Young never graduated from college.Young eventually told Brinkley, "You just be quiet. You be quiet," at which point the committee chair stepped in to mediate between Young and the still-riled Brinkley.
In a recent interview on MinnPost.com, Brinkley again goes after Young, saying that those in favor of opening ANWR aim to "demoralize the whole environmental movement," before going on to call Young "a low-grade Joseph McCarthy."
The two men's feud, at its core, may be one of fundamental differences: Brinkley is a historian who recently wrote a book -- "The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom" -- chronicling Alaska's history of wilderness conservation. Young once called environmentalists a "self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard graduating, intellectual idiots," and has long advocated for the opening of ANWR.
The Anchorage Daily News also reports that Young believes Brinkley to be stirring the pot for the sake of book sales.
Read more of Douglas Brinkley's opinions on Don Young and ANWR, at MinnPost.com.