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Conservative activist Grover Norquist says the American Conservative Union must take tougher action and ban a Florida vendor -- who sold anti-Muslim material at the group's Conservative Political Action Conference last week -- from future conventions.
Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, e-mailed fellow ACU board members this week, calling for a resolution apologizing "for the discomfort and insult that these offensive materials caused."
He also said a CPAC panelist, Frank J. Gaffney Jr. of the Center for Security Policy, had impugned the patriotism of a Muslim who works at the White House, because of his religion. Gaffney was formally uninvited from Norquist's "center-right coalition meeting" Wednesday -- the weekly lunch for conservative A-listers.
Gaffney said his comments were "addressing a serious national security issue and do not remotely qualify for his characterization as racist or bigoted."
ACU Chairman David Keene has not committed to banning the vendor and opposes Norquist's resolution. "We are not in the business of enforcing orthodoxy at CPAC or within the movement," he wrote to Norquist in an e-mail he sent to the whole board. "[Gaffney's] views may be obnoxious to you, but I'm sure some people find everything we say about a myriad of issues equally obnoxious."
Anyone know what Frank Gaffney said?