DES MOINES — Chuck Norris and Mike Huckabee shared the stage here Tuesday night at a “Huck and Chuck” event that the campaign claimed drew more than 2,000 people. Whether or not that was accurate, it was clearly a large turnout, and more evidence that taxes, immigration, clemency, foreign policy gaffes, and press conference-gate have not derailed the man from Hope.

One of the few newsy items of the evening was that Norris announced he would hold a “virtual BBQ” from his ranch in Texas on Jan. 20 that will be streamed over the Internet with the hopes of raising $10 million dollars for Huckabee ahead of the national primary. Is there that much pent up demand to get a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” type tour of the Norris ranch? I suppose we shall have to wait and see.

During the rest of the evening, Huckabee gave his standard stump speech, Norris made his pitch for Huck, then Huck played bass guitar with a local band, and was joined by Joe Scarborough.

I must say I found it odd to have the star of The Delta Force lecture me on tax policy, but I think the highlight of Norris’s speech came when he complained about the negative campaign against Huckabee. “Another thing that irritates me is them calling Mike Huckabee a Baptist minister,” Norris lamented. (Gee, wasn’t it Huckabee who took out an ad calling himself a “Christian leader” and defended the use of the term by saying he was simply educating voters about his background?) Norris’s point was evidently that the media should refer to him as “governor”–and then he followed up with another doozy: “I mean, they don’t call Mitt Romney ‘businessman Romney.'” Uh, actually Chuck, they kinda do.