The woman beside the new Press Secretary: Claire Shipman

Yesterday, it was announced that Jay Carney, the current director of communications for Vice President Joe Biden and a former Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, will be selected as the new White House press secretary. While we here at Political Girl were rooting for a woman and in particular this woman, we are pleased that the new spokesman for the Obama administration has a well accomplished woman beside him.

Claire Shipman is a veteran reporter for ABC Newsand regularly reports for Good Morning America in her role as Senior National Correspondent. Before coming to the ABC News in 2001, Shipman was a White House correspondent for NBC News since 1997.

Many have wondered if a partisan spokesperson and reporter relationship is ethically correct or if ABC News would somehow be at an advantage because of his role in the administration. Mr. Carney believes that it can work and even said so in an interview with the Washington Post in 2009.

Washington Post: One of the most notable members of the press corps is your wife, Claire Shipman, correspondent for ABC News. How do you avoid blurting out scoops over the dinner table?

Carney: I just don't, partly because we don't get to see each other that much thanks to my new job...We're figuring it out as I go. She's not a beat reporter at the White House. That's something she did before. She does some political stories. I tell her, 'Call Gibbs, call Rahm' or something like that when she's working on something. Because I can't be a source. But she's cool with that.

What do you think of the pick of Jay Carney? A good fit or a bad choice. Sound off below.

A Woman for Press Secretary?

According to Politico, that just might be the case. The newspaper is reporting that Karen Finney is being considered for press secretary to replace Robert Gibbs who will be stepping down from the podium in early February. While most other outlets are reporting that the top candidates are officials inside the administration, including Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton and Vice President Joe Biden's Communications Director Jay Carney, it is still great that she is on the short list. Ms. Finney is definitely qualified for the position as she once served as Director of Communications for the Democratic National Committee during Howard Dean's tenure and worked on the Kerry/Edwards campaign and Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign. You can even catch her on MSNBC as a commentator and political analyst.

Hopefully they aren't just floating her name because it looks good to have a woman on the list. We hope that she receives full consideration just like the male candidates.