"proper"/best way to hack SimpleXmlRpcServer to support datetime?

[Russell Warren]

I'm running python 2.5.1 and it seems that SimpleXmlRpcServer is not
setup to support the base datetime module in the same way xmlrpclib
has been with "use_datetime".  I see that someone (Virgil Dupras) has
recently submitted a fix to address this, but I don't want to patch my
python distro.  I want to work around it until the real upgrade comes.

I have a klugey workaround I can just drop in my program that does the
trick, but I'm curious if there is a better way?  I have not done that
many monkey patches.  I'm also of course interested in someone telling
me I don't need to patch this and I'm just blind to the correct way.

My monkey patch is below...

### HACK HACK HACK  ###
## Patching SimpleXmlRpcServer to support datetime (just like
xmlrpclib does)
from SimpleXMLRPCServer import xmlrpclib as _xmlrpclib
_old_loads = _xmlrpclib.loads
def _new_loads(*args, **kwargs):
    kwargs["use_datetime"] = True
    return _old_loads(*args, **kwargs)
_xmlrpclib.loads = _new_loads
### ENDHACK ENDHACK ###

That works, but are there any better, slicker, more pythonic, more
robust, more interesting, or just plain more fun ways to do it?