Gay marriage has long been a divisive and partisan issue with the most vocal opponents coming from the Republican Party.

How the party answers that question could shape its future.

But now, in the wake of recent state decisions in favor of gay marriage, some high profile members of the GOP are trying to change that, among them, Meghan McCain, the daughter of the party's favorite maverick. The 24-year-old McCain was the keynote speaker at an event this weekend hosted by the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative gay rights group.

McCain's message: "I think government is best when it stays out of people's lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And yes, I am a Republican."

While she didn't go so far as to come out explicity in support of gay marriage, her father's former campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, who also spoke at the event, did just that.

"It cannot be argued that marriage between people of the same sex is un-American or threatens the rights of others," he said. And in doing so, he took on the party's powerful religious right.

"If you put public policy issues to a religious test you risk becoming a religious party, and in a free country, a political party cannot remain viable in the long term if it is seen as sectarian," he said.

The comments from McCain and Schmidt come in the wake of three recent wins for the gay marriage movement.

In Iowa, the state's supreme court made history with a unanimous decision legalizing gay marriage.

Vermont became the first state to legalize same sex marriage through the legislature, not the courts.

And in Washington, D.C., the city council voted to recognize same sex marriages conducted outside the state -- a decision that could elevate the issue up to the U.S. Senate. Polls show that most Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, oppose gay marriage. But it's in the GOP where the issue has recently come to the fore, with some saying the party must distance itself from the religious right if it's going to find its way out of the political wilderness.

meghan mccain has actually been saying a lot of good stuff lately. She needs to run for office.

A republican party without the right wing religious nuts would actually be worth listening to once in a while.

I wouldn't go that far. It still leaves the anti-science nuts and the Big Brother pro-torture nuts. But it's a start.

You forgot the anti-brown people nuts and the gun nuts and the secession nuts and the anti-tax nuts and the black helicopter nuts, etc.

Not sure I see the link between being pro-torture and a relation to Big Brother.

RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.

Absolutely clueless, aren't they?

Tedisco’s victory will be a credible repudiation of the spending spree that Obama and Congress have been on since January. Even the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee acknowledged over the weekend that the race was “a referendum on the Economic Recovery Act and Barack Obama’s policies.” Well, the DCCC is right — this likely Republican victory is a referendum on the president. [...]

Well, the voters have spoken, and while the results are still pending, Republicans are confident that the final vote tallies will show those voters have rejected the president’s approach. [...]

The ground has shifted, and is shifting, as the voters become increasingly worried about Obamanomics. [...]

Tuesday’s election was a vote of "no confidence" in the Democrats’ tax, spend and borrow approach. I hope Obama and congressional Democrats are listening.

The crazy continues:

GOP HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.

A carcinogen? Who said that CO2 is a carcinogen? And cows fart methane, not CO2. Who is advising these clowns?

He didn't say that cows fart carbon dioxide. He said "do what they do" which could mean exhalation of CO2. Which would in fact make his statement true. I guess you could infer that he meant methane if that was the context from which he was speaking.

But then, these are the same people who ridiculed "something called volcano monitoring" as "wasteful" spending about a week before a volcano in Alaska blew its top.

Just because a volcano erupted recently (and hurt nobody and did nothing to the nearby pipeline) doesn't justify more spending on it.

He didn't say that cows fart carbon dioxide. He said "do what they do" which could mean exhalation of CO2. Which would in fact make his statement true. I guess you could infer that he meant methane if that was the context from which he was speaking.