Meet Karen Finney
February 11, 2012
Having introduced, last night, the brilliant young woman whom I see as an up and coming leader, a powerhouse, for the traditional principles of the Democratic Party, I thought I would share a little more about her. Do not go looking for her on Wikipedia. She is not there! I have no idea why not. But I have seen parts of her story at Mulatto.org.
When I posted that, Karen was appearing regularly on several MSNBC offerings and occasionally filled in as a host for Martin Bashir's hour. I was spending all of my TV time then watching cable news (a holdover habit from 2007-2008 and preceding my giving that up for Advent in 2013) and was in a pretty good position to see that Karen was no run-of-the-mill anchor and brought a special brand of mellow fierceness to reportage that I saw in no one else on cable news. She exemplified the iron fist in a velvet glove with her calm, lovely demeanor as she lit sticks of dynamite.
One example of Karen's effect at MSNBC was her unmasking of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) behind the Stand Your Ground laws in many states, including Florida, in the wake of George Zimmerman's fatal attack on Trayvon Martin. No one, in my experience of viewing multiple hours of MSNBC, had ever mentioned ALEC. But after Karen filled in for Bashir that day, it seemed that not an hour went by without some anchor bringing up ALEC.
If you do a search of her name at The Department of Homegirl Security a healthy few pages of preview blurbs come up because Karen never pulls a punch and, as a result, took a few in return. The homegirls did what homegirls do - we defended and supported her - usually by using her own words which are always right on target.
Finney friends and fans were delighted when she released this news on Facebook last month. Great news!!! Karen Finney Joins Team Hillary! We all had long known Karen in association with Hillary, so it was no surprise that Karen was back in Hillary's office, but, with the announcement coming from Karen herself, it did send a coded message to one and all that a bigger announcement was coming as indeed it did just six days later.
Hillary could not have chosen a smarter, stronger, or better experienced person for this job. Like Hillary, Karen is charming, lovely, brilliant, and no-nonsense. So as Karen's fan and friend, it is with delight that I share Nina Easton's portrait of her in Fortune. Thank you, Nina and thank you Fortune! Well done!
Meet the woman who speaks for Hillary Clinton
