Steve King

The Delicate Dance Of Disassociating Oneself From 'White Nationalist' Groups At CPAC

Ryan J. Reilly | February 11, 2012, 8:45AM

Steve King speaks during a CPAC panel on "The Failure of Multiculturalism."

Although much of the attention is on the main stage at each year's Conservative Political Action Conference, it's the side events where the real kookiness occurs. These events can give CPAC organizers and attendees a headache as they try to walk the line between accepting certain groups under the umbrella of the conservative movement, but also trying to make it clear they don't want to associate themselves with some of those groups' more questionable qualities.

Take for instance a session on the dangers of multiculturalism, that included participants from the website VDARE, which has been labeled as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Rep. Steve King was one of those who had to walk the fine line. When questioned about the Southern Poverty Law Center's description of his fellow panelists he first reacted by going on the offensive. "I wouldn't be sitting up on a panel with anyone from the Southern Poverty Law Center," King told reporters. "I'm not in a position to judge people in the fashion they seem to be so free to do."

However, King then danced a delicate series of mental pirouettes. He explained his respect for VDARE's top dog, Peter Brimelow, while holding back from a full-on embrace. Brimelow, he said, was not someone he'd met before the panel, though he had read his books.

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American Conservative Union

Former Manager At The American Conservative Union Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement

Jillian Rayfield | June 7, 2011, 10:55AM

Diana Hubbard Carr, the former administrative director at the American Conservative Union, pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling upwards of $120,000 during her time as bookkeeper for the group.

Carr is the ex-wife of David Keene, the former chair of the ACU, which is the group that organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference each year.

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Suhail Khan

CPAC Banned Frank Gaffney Over Baseless Anti-Muslim Charges

Ryan J. Reilly | February 15, 2011, 2:30PM

Frank Gaffney, CEO and founder of the Center for Security Policy.

The American Conservative Union banned Frank Gaffney from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the past two years because members of the board who looked into the charges he made against other board members found them to be baseless, a source close to the board tells TPM.

As first reported by Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress, the board decided not to invite Gaffney to speak, CPAC Chairman David Keene said.

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Andrew Breitbart

Shirley Sherrod Sues Andrew Breitbart Over Video

Eric Lach | February 14, 2011, 10:36AM

Shirley Sherrod and Andrew Breitbart

Shirley Sherrod, who was fired from her USDA job last year after Andrew Breitbart posted online an edited video of her, has filed a lawsuit for libel and slander against Breitbart in D.C. Superior Court. The suit was filed on Friday, and Breitbart was served with it this weekend, while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, according to The New York Times.

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Pamela Geller

Pamela Geller: CPAC 'Compromised By Muslim Brotherhood Activists' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | February 13, 2011, 2:05PM

Pamela Geller, the most vocal of the activists opposed to the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" to be built two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center, said Friday that the Conservative Political Action Conference she was speaking at had itself been "corrupted" and "compromised by Muslim Brotherhood activists."

Speaking at a non-official CPAC event on Friday afternoon, Geller said that many members of the board of the American Conservative Union had to go because they were allowing the event to be infiltrated by Muslim Brotherhood activists.

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Muslim-Americans

Despite Muslim, Gay Controversies, CPAC Still Has Wide 'Hate Fest' Selection

Ryan J. Reilly | February 8, 2011, 10:00AM

Pam Geller and Suhail Khan

If you're a reader of World Net Daily, a fan of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) or a regular reader of anti-Muslim columnist Frank Gaffney, you know all about the controversies surrounding the attendance of gay Republicans and Muslim conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference later this week.

But anti-gay and anti-Muslim CPAC attendees, take heart! There are still plenty of scheduled non-official CPAC events for the Islamo- and homophobic conservatives in your family.

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Frank Gaffney

Frank Gaffney And CPAC's Alleged Muslim 'Infiltrator' Face Off (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | January 21, 2011, 9:32AM

Suhail Khan and Frank Gaffney

Anderson Cooper, the master of the TV match-up, had on both terrorism "expert" and sharia alarmist Frank Gaffney and Suhail Khan, a board member of the Amercian Conservative Union whom Gaffney has accused of being an operative of Muslim jihadists.

Earlier this month, Gaffney took to World Net Daily to accuse Khan, a Republican who served in the second Bush administration, of being a jihadist infiltrator to the Conservative Political Action Conference. Gaffney said Khan was an operative of the Muslim Brotherhood, a catch-all group that no longer operates in the United States, but which Gaffney and others connect to prominent Muslim groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Muslims For America.

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CPAC

CPAC To Host Panel Called 'Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave Of The 9/11 Attacks'

Rachel Slajda | January 19, 2011, 8:46AM

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer

At the Conservative Political Action Conference next month -- the one decried as being "infiltrated" by the Muslim Brotherhood by the likes of sharia alarmist Frank Gaffney -- an event will be held titled, "The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks."

The event is a movie premiere, hosted by mosque opposition leader Pamela Geller and her partner Robert Spencer. It will be followed by "a question and action and strategy session on how to stop the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero."

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CPAC

Right-Wingers Claim Muslim Brotherhood Has Infiltrated CPAC

Jillian Rayfield | January 5, 2011, 3:11PM

The right-wing site World Net Daily and conservative columnist Frank Gaffney came up with a new reason this week to hate the Conservative Political Action Conference, arguing that it has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood thanks to Grover Norquist, the Republican group Muslims For America, and Ex-Bush staffer Suhail Khan.

In an interview with TPM today, Khan described how "every few months there's a different iteration of [Gaffney] and his cohorts' wild accusations," but it is simply untrue, and a part of Gaffney's "tempter tantrum" that he has been marginalized by the conservative movement.

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John Fund

Republican Lawyers Group Panel Featured ACORN 'Whistleblower,' John Fund

Ryan J. Reilly | October 18, 2010, 3:03PM

Anita Moncrief and John Fund

The Republican National Lawyers Association hosted a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year which featured John Fund, a conservative Wall Street Journal columnist who focuses on voter fraud allegations, and Anita MonCrief, the ACORN "whistleblower," who was actually reportedly fired by the organization over the misuse of a company credit card.

Cleta Mitchell, the co-chair of the RNLA, introduced the February panel, titled "Saving Freedom From Vote Fraud," but, she said, "We might have entitled it saving freedom from those who would steal it whose name is ACORN."

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Ryan Sorba

Gay-Bashing CPACer Has Checkered Legal History

Justin Elliott | February 23, 2010, 11:52AM

Ryan Sorba at CPAC 2010

The man who cited natural law in an off-script anti-gay rant at CPAC has had two run-ins with the real law in the past decade, including a restraining order for domestic violence, according to court records in California.

Ryan Sorba of California Young Americans for Freedom, who is a longtime anti-gay activist, in 2001 had a restraining order brought against him by a woman in a San Bernardino County domestic violence case, according to case records.

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