Last year, after Supreme Court Justice David Souter announced his retirement, speculation mounted about whether President Obama could potentially appoint the first openly gay Justice. Conservatives were unsure how to respond to this possibility. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, initially considered the possibility, but ultimately agreed that an openly gay nominee would be “a big concern.” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) also said such an appointment “would be a bridge too far right now.” Focus on the Family surprised many by suggesting that it could, in fact, support a gay Justice. “The issue is not their sexual orientation. It’s whether they are a good judge or not,” spokesperson Bruce Hausknecht told The Plum Line in May of 2009.

With Justice John Paul Stevens now retiring, the question has been raised again. This time, however, Focus on the Family is not taking any chances. The group has issued a statement correcting “this mistake”:

It has been reported that we would not oppose any U.S. Supreme Court nominee over their ’sexual orientation.’ Our Judicial Analyst [Bruce Hausknecht] made a statement to this effect in an interview with The Plum Line. To be honest, this is one of those conversations we’d like to ‘do over.’ We can assure you that we recognize that homosexual behavior is a sin and does not reflect God’s created intent and desire for humanity. Further, we at Focus do affirm that character and moral rectitude should be key considerations in appointing members of the judiciary, especially in the case of the highest court in the land. Sexual behavior–be it heterosexual or homosexual–certainly lies at the heart of personal morality.

Focus on the Family may have come back to its usual homophobic positions, but will conservative Republicans follow? On Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said he would “have to think about” supporting an openly gay Justice. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with their job, it’s not a particular issue,” he said.

With Family’s reversal, how long will it take for Cornyn or any other Republican to remember that “homosexual behavior is a sin and does not reflect God’s created intent” and reverse himself?

Last week, former Arkansas governor and current Fox News personality Mike Huckabee gave an interview to College of New Jersey’s magazine The Perspective, in which he argued that society should not accommodate same sex marriage because it would set a precedent of accepting other behaviors “against the ideal.” “You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” he said of same-sex marriage. “That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

Since the interview became public however, Huckabee has tried to walk back his comparison of gay marriage to drug users, or individuals who engage in incest and polygamy. The former Governor issued a statement distancing himself from his remarks and blaming the newspaper for quoting him out of context. “The young college student hopefully will find a career other than journalism. I would ask that he release the unedited tape of our conversation,” Huckabee said, accusing the reporter M.C. Tracey of “sensationalizing” his comments.

Well, The Perspective has responded by releasing the audio of the interview, in which Huckabee implies (very strongly) that gay people are too selfish and immature to raise children and says that he can’t see the difference between same-sex marriage and polygamy:

HUCKABEE: If we’re going to accommodate a different definition than that, then why do you get to decide that two men are okay, but one woman and three men aren’t okay? Why? Who gives you the right to say that the Polygamist is not just as right in his argument as is the person who wants same sex [marriage]?

TRACEY: So, preferable to keep them in what the foster system?

HUCKABEE: No, preferable to have men and women who actually give consideration to their sexual activities that lead to pregnancy that lead to birth and that they act responsibly and they raise their own kids. And they do it with a sense of true understanding of what that involves. They act like grown ups. You know, we don’t get to choose that people act like grown ups. But in a perfect world, in the ideal world, people would recognize that having a child is heavy duty responsibility and you engage into a relationship with somebody sexually as a permanent expression of your commitment to that person. You don’t use another person a sexual toy and toss them away, leaving them with the burdens of a child. That to me is what’s so recklessly irresponsible and ridiculously immature. When people use another person as their sexual object of pleasure without any regards to the ultimate consequences that may result from it. That’s not mature sexuality, that’s immature, selfish lifestyle. …

TRACEY: And you would classify among those who are immature and selfish the gays and lesbians who want to adopt children?

HUCKABEE: No, you said that. I did not. I said that the ideal world is a man and a woman

TRACEY: We don’t live in an ideal world though!

HUCKABEE: You don’t go ahead and accommodate… Once you accommodate someone’s desires for a lifestyle, who gets to choose where it starts and where it stops? …I’ve always found it disingenuous for people to say it’s okay for this to be changed, but not polygamy for example. Why not? What’s the difference?

Listen:

The Human Rights Campaign is running a petition calling on Huckabee to retract his statements. You can sigh it here.