San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - Tuesday, April 8, 1997 - Page A1
Louis Freedberg, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Clinton had been under pressure from AIDS groups to hire a high-profile politician, like former Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker, who could command attention on Capitol Hill and in the media. Instead, the president selected someone relatively well- known within the AIDS advocacy community but not outside it.

Thurman's appointment was welcomed by most AIDS organizations. She is a former director of AID Atlanta, the largest organization in the South providing health services and support services to people with AIDS. She most recently worked at Atlanta's Carter Center, heading a task force on child survival and development. "My door is open to her," Clinton said.

"I've worked with her, and I can attest that she tells it like it is, she speaks the truth unvarnished, she won't hold back in this office," he said of the 43-year-old Thurman, who also served as political director for his re-election campaign in Georgia. "She will have the support and the resources she will need, including my personal support, to succeed in this important task."

Thurman, an Atlanta native, replaces Patsy Fleming, who resigned late last year. Clinton's first AIDS adviser, Kristine Gebbie, was criticized for being ineffective, and she resigned in July 1994.

"We are deeply aware of the responsibility that this administration has to all Americans who are living with HIV and AIDS and to those all around the world who turn to us for leadership and hope," Thurman said, noting that Clinton had assured her that she would have "the highest level of access to the administration."

The problem with the AIDS post -- which is often referred to as the AIDS "czar" -- is that it generates high expectations but carries little authority. Thurman's predecessors have been unable to use the post as a bully pulpit in the same way as retired General Barry McCaffrey, the president's "drug czar." But unlike AIDS, drug prevention is already an issue at or near the top of the political agenda on both sides of the political spectrum.

"President Clinton must grant the new AIDS czar access, responsibility and delegation of meaningful authority," said Pat Christen, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "Only with such authority can she effectively face the dramatic changes taking place in managing and ending the HIV epidemic -- especially the advent of genuinely hopeful protease inhibitor drugs."

NEEDLE EXCHANGES

Thurman's leadership will be tested in the coming months, especially on the controversial issue of needle exchange programs. Although there are 128 such programs across the country, Congress has banned the use of federal funds to support them.

Thurman acknowledged that a recent Health and Human Services report "indicated that needle exchanges do not increase drug use, and do decrease the rate of transmission of the virus."

At the same time, she declined to say whether she would recommend that President Clinton recommend to Congress that the ban be lifted. She said the more important goal is to educate Congress about needle exchange programs.

"That (HHS) report is pretty basic science, that is not rocket science," she said. "The report is in the hands of Congress, and we have to see if they are going to act on fallacy and fantasy, or are they going to act on fact."

`READ BETWEEN THE LINES'

Alexander Robinson, who is president of the San Francisco- based National Task Force on AIDS Prevention, said outsiders should "read between the lines" of Thurman's comments. "She works for the president and does not want to be out in front of him or the secretary (of HHS)," he said. "I believe that ultimately the secretary will certify that these programs are appropriate."

Winnie Stachelberg, legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest AIDS lobbying group, also said that the needle exchange issue will not be resolved by the Clinton administration alone. "We have to work with her, the president and Congress because we can't forget that Congress really has the ultimate say in what language goes into those bills."

The only noticeable dissenting voice yesterday on Thurman's appointment came from ACT UP, the outspoken AIDS advocacy group. "Thurman might have been a good bureaucrat, but certainly was no leader in the war against AIDS," said ACT UP Georgia representative Roger Garza.

But Thurman did not seem perturbed by criticism of her appointment. "ACT UP projects a lot of anger, which is to be expected. It serves a purpose. It makes all the rest of us listen," she said.
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