Politico reports Karen Finney being considered to replace Robert Gibbs

Even though she would be an outsider in Obama’s close-knit camp, the telegenic Finney has more experience than almost any other candidate. In addition to her job as former DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s top communications strategist, she served as spokeswoman for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, has worked as a Democratic political consultant and served a stint as Elizabeth’s Edwards’s spokeswoman during the 2004 campaign.

She would have been a top contender for the press secretary job if Clinton had won the nomination in 2008 – and has been among Obama’s few effective cable TV surrogates, taking on Republicans with a forceful but genial debating style on CNN and MSNBC, where she’s listed as a contributor.

If either Burton or Finney were chosen they would be the first African-Americans to hold the high-profile position. Finney, if selected, would instantly emerge as the female face of an administration dominated by Type A men — exemplified by Gibbs, who threw himself into the spokesman’s job with the same fire that fueled him as a college soccer goalie.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47107.html