United Liberty

The infighting amongst conservatives escalated this week as Focus on the Family became the latest sponsor of CPAC to threaten a boycott of the conference because of the role GOProud, a gay conservative group, is playing this year:

Focus on the Family and other conservative ministries are boycotting or questioning their commitment to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., next month because a gay advocacy group is cosponsoring the event.

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of the Focus lobbying arm CitizenLink, said Tuesday that the February event could be the last time the Colorado Springs-based ministry is a CPAC sponsor.

CitizenLink is participating this year in part to offset GOProud’s presence at CPAC, Minnery said.

“When you don’t have the influence of organizations like ours,” Minnery said, “you end up with influences from organizations like GOProud.”

As I’ve said time and time again, conservatives must change their emphasis as social issues continue to fade out of the public. The economy and jobs are what is important to Americans right now, and it will be for some time as our fiscal challenges continue to be a threat to our prosperity.

Unfortunately, the backlash against CPAC isn’t just because of GOProud. The involvment of Muslims for America is causing reactionaries in the conservative movement to get attention:

With the Conservative Political Action Conference under fire for allowing participation by a homosexual activist group called GOProud and for a financial scandal in which some $400,000 was misappropriated under the watch of current leadership, Frank Gaffney, a leader of the conservative movement for the last 30 years, charges that CPAC has come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is working to bring America under Saudi-style Shariah law.

Gaffney, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, is founder and president of the Center for Security Policy and co-author of the new book “Shariah: The Threat to America.” He told WND that Islamism has infiltrated the American Conservative Union, the host of CPAC, in the person of Washington attorney and political activist Suhail Khan and a group called Muslims for America.

Khan is a member of the ACU board and, according to Muslims for America, will assist the group’s presence at CPAC during the 2011 meeting Feb. 10-12.

Gaffney also accuses another ACU board member, leading conservative political organizer Grover Norquist, of helping the Muslim Brotherhood spread its influence in the nation’s capital.
[…]
Gaffney describes Norquist, who, ironically also serves on the board of the controversial GOProud, as the enabler for Muslim Brotherhood associates, providing them with access into the highest reaches of the conservative movement and the Republican Party through his many contacts. Norquist, the founder of Americans for Tax Reform, hosts a weekly political organizing meeting attended by many of the leading conservatives in Washington.

That’s right, folks, Grover Norquist, who also serves on the advisory board for GOProud, is a secret muslim. Of course, I’m kidding. However, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised to see the accusation leveled against him.

All of this is embarrassing for the conservative movement.