Like other liberals, I was pretty happy yesterday about the White House decision to stop defending the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. At the same time I also expected a full-scale rant-a-thon from furious conservatives over the decision. So far, however, the right's response has been surprisingly muted. Maybe they're so jacked up about union-busting in Wisconsin that they weren't paying attention to Obama's DOMA kiss-off, and they'll get around to it soon. But as of Thursday afternoon, the only GOP bigwigs who've griped are U.S. House Speaker John "Orange Alert" Boehner and former U.S. senator Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum. Boehner's office said Obama shouldn't have brought up such a controversial issue when "Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending" — interesting, considering that Boehner focused pretty exclusively on curbing abortion rights in the first weeks of the GOP's new House majority. Santorum, who for some reason says he'll run for president, announced that Obama is eroding everything that's great blahblahblahblah. Honestly, does anyone really care what Santorum has to say?

But there's one GOPer who didn't let us down, and in fact, seems to have gone over the top regarding yesterday's White House announcement. Can you guess who it is? That wasn't too difficult, was it? Yep, you're right, it's Bill James, Mecklenburg County Commissioner and Honorary Generalissimo of Area Homophobes. James continued his odd, intense obsession with gays and gay sex, first with a tweet yesterday about a proposed N.C. Senate bill outlawing same sex marriage:

NC Senate proposes anti-homo marriage amendment to the NC Constitution. Way to GO!

In case the tweet wasn't sufficiently stuck-in-the-1950s, James today sent out a mass e-mail in which he flogged one of his all-time favorite topics: men having sex in public parks as "proof' that homosexuals are predators who endanger children, decency, baseball cards and probably the 2nd Amendment. Apparently, there are some men in Charlotte who have set up websites that identify places to go for “public sex.” To James, this means that all homosexuals are predators, and should be treated as moral lepers. Here are some choice quotes from James’ missive:

Homosexuals don't deserve 'equality' for their perverted behavior.

All people may be created equal - but not all behavior is.

Wanting to do the deed in Mecklenburg County parks is just sicko.

Homosexuals are sexual predators because they get a thrill out of public sex and know (any reasonable person would know) that doing so in a park means that a child or others could be exposed to the behavior.

They could go to a gay bar and then on to a hotel but no - it is the thrill component that makes homosexuals as a group predators (Pervs for short) and why they enjoy picking a County park in a middle class neighborhood full of kids and advertise it on a web site.

Given the chance and society's approval, every park in Mecklenburg would become a condom infested homosexual trolling ground unfit for human habitation.

James, as he has done before, quotes from a 1994 survey by The Advocate, which James says shows 99 percent of gay men first met their partners in either public parks or the parks' bathrooms, roadside rest areas, bathhouses or sex clubs, or an adult bookstore. I would love to see the survey James keeps talking about, because I looked up the 1994 The Advocate survey, and maybe I'm blind, but I could not find anything that supports James' claim. I did, however, find one result of the poll that should give James pause: 71 percent of respondents said they prefer long-term monogamous relationships to other arrangements.

You can complain that James unfairly lumps all gays in with park cruisers, and you'd be right. But you can't say the guy doesn't keep his mind on his work.