I wasn't at CPAC, but I believe Gaffney's objections were based on something other than generic anti-Islamic sentiments.
Per Gaffney in The Washington Times, 2/11/03:
"The AMC (American Muslim Council) press release made a point of commending Ali Tulbah, an associate director of the White House's Office of Cabinet Affairs, for including their representatives (notably, executive director Eric Erfan Vickers) in the meeting. Mr. Tulbah similarly admitted another highly controversial organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in this meeting. There appear to have been at least nine other meetings that these groups have attended with the White House and senior administration officials since September 2001, some at the invitation of a predecessor of Mr. Tulbah in the role of gatekeeper for the administration's Muslim "outreach" efforts, Suhail khan. The inclusion of such organizations is remarkable on its face. It is, after all, a matter of public record that they actively oppose President Bush on: the need forcibly to liberate Iraq; increasing surveillance of potentially dangerous aliens in this country and the places where they congregate (including mosques); and giving law enforcement tools to counter terror. They have also repeatedly expressed sympathy for, excused or otherwise supported groups identified by the Bush administration as terrorists. Last June, for example, CAIR's executive director Nihad Awad declared "I am in support of the Hamas movement." And in a television debate last June with me, the AMC's Mr. Vickers declined repeatedly to denounce either Hamas, Hezbollah or even al Qaeda, finally describing the last as a "resistance movement."
Think about how you would feel if Gaffney were Blumenthal or Brock talking about Free Republic as a group based on what a few of the posters say.
If Free Republic were actively condoning and/or encouraging the rhetoric of groups such as the AMC and CAIR, I would say they deserved the criticism.
I don't see Bush as a villain in this BTW, but as a politician who is not thinking outside the box on this matter. Relying on entrenched special interest groups is a way of life in D.C., but in this case, it is preventing the moderate Muslims -- those who truly believe that theirs is a "Religion of Peace" -- from having their voices heard.
Today, I listened to anti-Semitic spew from Ibrahim Cooper, spokesman for CAIR, on the Press/Buchanan show on MSNBC. He stated that the arrest of Sami Al-Arian was a result of the Jewish control of the U.S., along with the same-old, same-old "persecution of Muslims" line. It was nauseating -- and yet this organization is the one cultivated by Norquist, given entree into the White House, and consulted by the State Department in its PR campaign to improve the U.S. image in the Muslim world. That is the basis of Gaffney's (and others) objections, and he definitely has a point.