Brinkley’s Wit Is Dessert at Luncheon

Bob Hope, it seems, has nothing on David Brinkley.

Stepping to the lectern at a book and author luncheon in Irvine on Tuesday, the veteran broadcast journalist said he wanted to congratulate everyone who worked so hard to make the lunch such a success.

“Particularly the waiters--Gary Hart, Al Gore, Paul Simon, Bruce Babbitt . . . “

On a roll, the deadpan broadcaster explained in his patented, clipped speech that “I came here from Washington Sunday to the (American Booksellers Assn.) meeting in Anaheim, immediately beside Disneyland, so I had the feeling I had gone from one theme park to another.”

Brinkley’s political humor was a bonus for the audience at The Times Orange County Edition’s first Book and Author Luncheon.

The sellout crowd of 580, gathered in the ballroom of the Irvine Hilton Hotel, had come to hear Lady Bird Johnson speak about her new book, “Wildflowers Across America,” novelist T.C. Boyle on his new novel, “World’s End” and Brinkley on “Washington Goes to War,” his personal reminiscences of life in the nation’s capital during World War II.

Johnson, in speaking about her book, which she co-wrote with horticulturist Carlton Lees, told of her lifelong love of nature and her efforts to beautify America.

Boyle, whose latest novel is an epic set in New York’s Hudson Valley, chose not to speak about his novel at all and instead read a short story.

Brinkley went for the laughs by talking about life in the nation’s capital during World War II when he was a 20-year-old reporter.

In a serious vein, Brinkley said that in writing his book about that period, he discovered that “a good deal of what this country is today was formed at that time.”

“During World War II, under the pressure of war and the need for enormous quantities of money to finance the war on two fronts at the same time, the U.S. Congress--after a good deal of persuasion--passed what we now call the withholding tax. That is to say: take the money away from you before you ever see it. The Congress, I am confident, to this day would never have passed any such law without the pressure of war as an excuse to make it necessary.”