The epic friendship with Bush Chief of Staff, political operative and FoxNews political analyst Karl Rove gave Norquist an open door to the Oval Office under Bush.  Rove and Norquist set up the Islamic Institute in a thinly disguised attempt to attract American Muslims to vote Republican in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections. In a radio debate  hosted by Hugh Hewitt with Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, who had written one of the more telling dossiers on Norquist, Norquist wasn’t above stooping to the line that criticism of Arab American Muslim is tantamount to racism. Witness this remark:

"There is no place in the conservative movement for racial prejudice, religious bigotry or ethnic hatred… The conservative movement cannot be associated with racism or bigotry. … It is important that we, as conservative, stand up against bigotry, racism, and religious hatred whenever it raises its ugly head."

Here's what Poole wrote about these issues that dogged the appearance of Wilders, shunted aside from the glare of rostrum of CPAC that corroborate what other “official bloggers”  like Pamela Geller have noted:

 
That the conservative movement has slid into complete irrelevancy was demonstrated by the absence of any ideas, nay, any discussion whatsoever of several of the most pressing political issues of our day.

As fellow blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugged observed, there was not a single panel on the War on Terror, the growing threats to free speech, or the cultural jihad underway in the West.

What should have been one of the most important events of this year’s CPAC, the appearance by Dutch parliamentarian and anti-jihad activist Geert Wilders, was relegated to the opposite side of the hotel, divorced from all of the other conference proceedings. There were no official announcements that this event would even be taking place (none that I heard at least), and when trying to locate the room in which it would be held, not a single CPAC staffer could tell me where. And this event only happened because David Horowitz, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and Andy Bostom personally shelled out the money to make it happen.

Now CPAC organizers would no doubt respond that they could not fit Wilders into the schedule on such short notice. But I have no doubt that if Bristol Palin had suddenly come available to address CPAC on the virtues of teen pregnancy, David Keene and the American Conservative Union would no doubt have moved heaven and earth to make room in the schedule for her. But they could not accommodate a man who lives under constant death threats by a long list of Islamic terrorist organizations. Honestly, I don’t know much about Geert Wilders’ politics. I only met the man briefly, and I heard his stump speech twice on Friday. But anyone who has a stack of fatwas calling for his death because of his willingness to speak out against the global jihad is going to receive my support, regardless of any politically incorrect view he may or may not hold. From my limited perspective, all Geert Wilders has done is hold a mirror up to reflect back the ugly racism and advocacy of violence that are the staple of the most prominent and authoritative officials in Islam. For that he has earned nothing but enmity from the avowed enemies of the West. But it wasn’t enough to earn him a speaking spot on this year’s CPAC schedule. Meanwhile, GOP operative and Karl Rove confidante Grover Norquist, who is single-handedly responsible for opening the doors of political power for [convicted felons] al-Qaeda fundraiser Abdulrahman Alamoudi and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian, was given the honor of introducing House Minority Leader John Boehner on Friday morning. The contrast between the cold reception of Wilders and the warm embrace of Norquist by CPAC could not be any starker.