Washington Blade - July 26, 2002
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Two days before the White House announced on July 26 that Evertz was being replaced by an openly gay physician and transferred to another job at the Department of Health & Human Services, Bush administration sources leaked information claiming the transfer was a disguised firing. Some sources said the action was the result of a "power struggle" between administration factions favoring sexual abstinence until marriage as the primary emphasis for preventing the spread of AIDS and a rival faction favoring condom use as the preferred AIDS prevention method.

Others sources speculated that Evertz lacked the skills needed to address complicated medical and scientific issues associated with AIDS and that he alienated both conservatives and mainline AIDS groups by telling jokes rather then discussing serious policy issues during his appearances before audiences across the country.

Evertz's supporters in the administration and among gay Republican groups dismiss claims that Evertz wasn't qualified for the job, saying the president and high level administration officials have praised Evertz's work. Supporters say the White House transferred Evertz to an equally important post at the Health Department, where he will help to coordinate the government's international AIDS programs.

"Anybody who says Scott Evertz was fired is wrong," said Kevin Ivers, spokesperson for Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay group.

Charles Francis, the gay director of the Republican Unity Coalition, which bills itself as a gay-straight alliance intended to build support within the Republican Party on gay issues, said he had no specific information about the Evertz job change but he praised Evertz for doing what he called "excellent job" under unusually difficult circumstances.

"He was beat up by the left and attacked by the right," said Francis, a friend of the president's from Texas. "He handled it all with dignity and uncomplaining service and loyalty to President Bush."

In a statement issued last Friday, July 26, the White House announced that President Bush named gay physician Joseph O'Neill, the acting head of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at HHS, to replace Evertz as head of the White House AIDS office. The White House statement made no mention of Evertz or the fact that O'Neill would be replacing Evertz.

"As director of the Office of National AIDS Policy," the White House statement said, "Dr. O'Neill will work with the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of State and other federal agencies to develop and coordinate HIV/AIDS policy and programs for the administration." The statement added that the AIDS policy office provides support for a White House AIDS task force that, in turn, "coordinates the administration's activities and responses to all aspects of the domestic and global AIDS epidemic."

In a separate statement released that same day, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that he had named Evertz as his special assistant "to assist in further developing and implementing the department's overall strategy to fight HIV/AIDS around the world." Thompson said Evertz's duties would include U.S. work on the United Nations Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis & Malaria.

White House deputy press secretary Scott McClellen told the Blade Wednesday, July 24, that Evertz "has done a great job for us" as AIDS office director and he "will continue to have a very influential role in our effort to combat HIV/AIDS worldwide."

Evertz did not return calls to his office seeking comment on his job change. In the statement released by HHS announcing his appointment as Thompson's special assistant, Evertz said he was "thrilled to be able to help the administration address the global pandemic in this new capacity."

"I look forward to working closely with Secretary Thompson and the Department of Health & Human Services as we move forward on international AIDS programs," Evertz said in the statement.

McClellen, meanwhile, dismissed reports by unnamed sources in the press who claimed Evertz had been fired.

Abstinence debate at issue?

McClellen's comments came one week after sources from the Bush administration and Congress began to leak conflicting stories over the reasons behind Evertz's transfer from the White House to HHS. Some sources, speaking to reporters on condition that they not be identified, claimed Evertz had been fired at the behest of conservative political activists.

According to the sources, conservative activists, including leaders of anti-gay religious-right groups, persuaded the White House that Evertz had aligned himself with liberal AIDS groups and emphasized condom use as a key means of preventing the spread of HIV. Those pushing this theory said critics charged that Evertz had "strayed off the reservation" by not giving enough support to the president's stated policy of advocating sexual abstinence until marriage as the most important AIDS prevention message.

Some of these same sources said Evertz's apparent ouster was a victory for Patricia Ware, a conservative activist whom Bush named last year as executive director of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. The sources claimed that Evertz and Ware had clashed over the condom-abstinence only policy dispute and that Ware reportedly helped orchestrate Evertz's firing.

In a second set of leaks, administration and Capitol Hill sources reported on Thursday, July 18 - one day before the official White House announcement about Evertz's job change - that the White House had decided to fire Ware.

Some of the sources said White House political advisers, acknowledging that Evertz and Ware had clashed over policy issues, wanted a clean break from both of them. Other sources said the White House was angry that Ware appeared to have leaked information to the press declaring that Evertz's ouster from the AIDS office post was a "victory" for her and her conservative allies at the White House.

But the unfolding story did not end there. A few days later, some of the same sources said Ware, who told supporters she had been fired on July 18, told the same people she was "unfired" one day later, on July 26. According to the sources, the White House caved in from pressure by conservative groups that expressed outrage over Ware's reported firing. Still other sources supportive of Evertz said Ware was informed she could stay in her job for about a month before being asked to leave.

White House press spokesperson Ann Womack told the Blade on July 26 that "there were no changes" regarding Ware's job as executive director of PACHA. When asked on July 24 about Ware's status, McClellen, in a cautiously worded comment, said, "What we announced on Friday [July 26] is everything we had to announce at this time."

Asked if the White House would have something else to announce about Ware at a later date, McClellen said, "Well, if there is we will do so at that time. But the changes that were announced were all we have to announce at this time."

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay political organization, added its views to the unfolding story by telling the Washington Post and other news outlets last week that it believed Evertz was "ousted" from his White House post. HRC spokesperson David Smith said that, while HRC was pleased that the president named Joseph O'Neill has Evertz's replacement, HRC believed Evertz was replaced as a result of pressure from conservative factions within the White House and from conservative groups.

Ivers, the Log Cabin spokesperson, called HRC's assertion "utter nonsense."

Ivers said reports from unnamed press sources that Evertz had been fired were coming from a small group of uninformed agitators from anti-gay conservative groups and liberal AIDS activists and Democrats whose motive is to stir up criticism against the Bush administration. He called the two factions an "unholy alliance" intent on undermining the administration's "strong and well-functioning" policies and programs on AIDS.

James Driscoll, a gay Republican activist and a Bush appointee on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, was the only administration backer to state on the record that he believes Evertz's departure was a dismissal.

"The deciding factor was job performance, not ideology, and definitely not the wedge issue of condoms versus abstinence," Driscoll said in a statement released to the Blade.

Driscoll called Bush's decision to appoint Evertz to the AIDS office post "an act of political courage." He said Bush picked Evertz as a prominent gay Republican, knowing that he lacked experience in Washington and did not have an extensive background in AIDS issues.

At the time Bush named Evertz to the White House AIDS office job, Evertz was a fund-raiser for a senior citizens home in Milwaukee. Although he had worked closely with then Gov. Tommy Thompson in the 1990s on gay and AIDS policy issues, Evertz had no technical or medical background on AIDS issues.

"Evertz should have compensated for his slim experience with an open door and hard work," Driscoll said. "Instead, he developed a reputation for not returning anyone's phone calls, for jokes and flippancy in speeches, and even arrogance. Bush tries to run his administration like a business. Good businesses replace sub-par performers."

Ivers disputed Driscoll's assessment, saying Driscoll doesn't have access to informed administration sources.

Also disputing Driscoll's version of what happened to Evertz was Mark Delmonte, director of public affairs for the AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth & Family.

Delmonte, who said he is in close contact with the nation's prominent AIDS organizations, said Evertz enjoyed widespread support among nearly all AIDS groups, including those aligned with the Democratic Party.

"He has always been open to us," Delmonte said. "I'm not aware of any effort by the organized AIDS community to seek Scott's ouster. There was a question of whether the administration listened to him," said Delmonte, "but there was never any feeling that he wasn't doing a good job."

News reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.
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