The Commander
In the 1980s, Hank Carde planned military strategy at the highest levels of the Pentagon. Then he fell in love, got sick, and left the Navy to run a one-man crusade for people with AIDS.
Cover Story
At 9:30 a.m., Hank Carde begins a busy Monday with an appearance at the mayor's kickoff for National Public Health Week. Afterward, he spends some time working on his influential AIDS newsletter, a faxed bulletin often read by top city officials, Hill staffers, and at least one senior control board staffer. By 1:50 p.m., he arrives at the John Wilson/District Building to testify at a D.C. Council hearing. Before and after his testimonyhe's No. 1 on a list of 52 witnesseshe gabs with city administrators and a Washington Post reporter, who will quote him prominently in the next day's paper.
Carde delivers his statement in the strong voice of a man who has overseen hundreds of subordinates. When At-Large Councilmember Linda Cropp begins offering what sound like hollow promises, Carde stomps: "Let me put you on the spot: Are you prepared to go back to Congress to say that?" Carde wants Cropp to fight to restore some of the cuts to the city's struggling public health programs, particularly those that affect AIDS patients.
Few witnesses have the temerity to ask such frank questions of the woman who is the early favorite to succeed David Clarke as council chair. "Um, yes," Cropp answers. A little unevenly, she adds that she has underlined for members of Congress and the control board that public health is a council priority.
After his testimony, Carde sails down three flights of stairs to another office, where he hopes to review the new health insurance plan for District employees. In the afternoon, he makes his usual round of calls to city and federal bureaucrats, some of whom have come to dread his persistent queries.... Continued
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