UPDATE: The religious right leader claimed that he was speaking on behalf of the White House, "I came to you representing the White House." More from the Seattle Times' blog.
The White House is denying that it gave its seal of approval to religious right homophobe Ken Hutcherson to travel around the world with his Holocaust-revisionist buddy Scott Lively and portray himself as a "special envoy" of George Bush's White House and the Faith-Based Initiative. But Hutcherson tells The Stranger's blog, slog, otherwise - and he names names:
I just spoke to Pastor Ken Hutcherson. He tells me that White House spokeswoman Alyssa J. McLenning is wrong, that he does have the title he claimed, and that it comes from a “partnership” he’s established with Jay Hein, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
“You need to talk to Jay Hein,” Hutcherson told me. “He’s the one that I’ve been talking to and the one that we are partnered with.”
Hutcherson claims to have met with Hein at least twice in person about this partnership, once a few months ago in Seattle, and once last month at the White House. I asked Hutcherson what the title and the partnership mean in terms of his work in Latvia. He replied:
“In my meetings, I can represent as being with them [the White House] and having the power I need to get things done.”
