I’m going to say something that will surprise you; shock you; it will likely result in an audible gasp from our audience here in the Huckabee theater!  Here it is:  I salute Nancy Pelosi!  Yes—I do.   For making a stop in Taiwan during what would have otherwise been a meaningless government junket for her and some Congressional cronies to fly around the world at taxpayer expense and pick up some bargains while pretending to be on an important trip to study world conditions.

Yep—catch your breath and realize that I am actually giving props to Pelosi; kudos to the Congresswoman; salute to the speaker!  Now, don’t get used to it.  I’ll be back to my sarcastic and snarly self soon, but it genuinely mattered that Pelosi didn’t back down and cancel her stop in Taiwan as a result of the blustering bullying of the Chinese communist party who threatened to shoot her plane down if she tried to land in Taipei.  Of course they didn’t shoot down her plane.

I’ve been to Taiwan more than a dozen times.  I love the country and its people.  I love their embrace of freedom and their commitment to an elected government and to the benefits of free enterprise.  Hey, I learned to use chopsticks there.  In my first trip when I was a mere Lt. Governor, I was treated to a wonderful luncheon with a group of political, government, and business leaders in Taiwan.  The only utensils before me were chopsticks.  And I was hungry.  Like being thrown into the water and forced to swim, my hungry self completely mastered the use of chopsticks in short order.  To this day, I wouldn’t think of eating Chinese food with a knife and fork! 

I was there most recently just before the pandemic shut the world down.  I’ve met with the last 4 of its Presidents.  It’s a vibrant, exciting little island where innovation and technology rule.  Frankly, I can’t wait to go back.  But my reasons for offering my rare praise for Pelosi tonight is because China has bullied the world into submission.  Major US corporations cower in their corner offices and say nothing about the human rights abuses of the communists in mainland China.  They love the money they are making from doing business with the Chinese communists and look the other way at child slave labor, the sick and twisted oppression of free speech so strict it would make Facebook and Twitter blush, and a brutal treatment of Christians.  And big celebrity athletes and entertainers like LeBron James smugly speak of how awful America is and fail to say a word about the millions they make in China by using slave labor to make their shoes and other junk.  Whether it’s Walmart or Disney or Woke-a-Cola, it really is all about the Benjamins.

While President Biden was sending mixed messages and all but urging Speaker Pelosi to not set foot in Taiwan, Pelosi understood that once it became public that she even MIGHT go, and the Chinese government started having the tantrums of a two-year old, she absolutely HAD to go for otherwise, it would make America look even weaker than Biden made us look in the exit from Afghanistan. 

So when I saw her plane touch down at the Taipei airport and saw the welcome she received from the good and freedom—loving citizens of Taiwan, I was for a moment very proud of her and of the United States for standing with a faithful friend and ally and not caving into the petty cash-driven demands of the bullies in the so-called People’s Republic of China. 

Now, I’m sure when Nancy gets home, she’ll be right back to tearing up Donald Trump speeches on TV, making incoherent speeches, promoting abortion, rallying her partisan pets to raise taxes, and keeping the likes of her pet Republican Liz Cheney on a short leash.  And I’ll be right back to calling her out for insider stock trading involving her husband, ignoring President Biden and his son Hunter’s unseemly connections to business with the Chinese communists, and her still pretending that the January 6 riots in DC were worse than 9-11. 

But for now, I raise my glass of iced tea, tip my hat, and offer a deep bow from the waist to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for being a brave American Eagle and not a frightened chicken in the face of threats from one of the most corrupt and evil empires on the face of the planet!