Now that the Grand Old Party has come to an end, Republicans across the land are finding new things to do with their time. Mike Huckabee has a talk show, Sarah Palin is perfecting the art of stand-up-governorship, Mitt Romney’s a Brylcreem salesman and the Republican National Committee’s Online Communication Manager, James Richardson has become a blogger.

We mention the last one because Richardson’s been using his digital hitching post to say some crazy, unorthodox things about gay adoption. The case of Frank Martin Gill, a gay Florida man raising two foster children gave Richardson pause when a judge ruled that banning gay adoption is unconstitutional.

Richardson took a look at the lay of the land and realized that maybe this anti-gay thing isn’t the way to win votes after all. He writes:

“My support for gay adoption will surely be met with hostility and, no doubt, charges of RINO’ism by many of my colleagues, but the Grand Old Party is at a crossroads and now is not the time for an echo chamber. Homosexual demagoguery is not the answer to the Party’s woes, particularly when gay men and women represent the only demographic in which John McCain bested President Bush (27% to 19% based on exit polling). And as Daniel Blatt notes, gay-hostile rhetoric no longer resonates in suburban areas with soccer moms, many of whom have gay friends or family members, and plays even worse with young voters, 61% of which voted against stripping gay couples of the right to marry.

To my dissenters, let me be clear, I am not advocating some sort of radical “judicial activism.” I maintain that judicial resolution to these matters (adoption, marriage, etc) typically leads to protracted and bitter legal battles, but, what is perhaps equally as distressing is our collective failure as a Party to hold a candid discussion on the emerging role of gays in the Party and society at large – not as outcastes, but as equals.”

Every moderate blog in the universe jumped on the story, including Sully, Hot Air, Poligazette and The Moderate Voice all congratulating this one lone Republican for suggesting that the Republican Party reexamine their stand on gay rights. They also all commented on how James Richardson’s dissidence would prompt all sorts of angry attacks by the far right blogosphere, which hasn’t happened– because now that the election is over far-right loonies don’t have to pretend that John McCain campaign staffers are actual real Republicans anymore and can go back to ignoring all their talk of electability and “changing with the times.”

The far-right’s response to November’s losses has been to entrench deeper into the cultural Maginot Line, hoping that they can whip up support by calling gays “terrorists” or “anarchists” and making everyone believe Newt Gingrich is relevant again. These folks don’t blog; they scratch their missives on the bodies of their defeated opponents and hang them in the public square for all to see.

The question is, who will dominate the next iteration of the Republican Party? Will it be the Bitters or will new voices like Richardson show the G.O.P. a way out of the “Angry Old Man” forest?