THIS JUST IN AT THE NEW REPUBLIC: Yes, you can be a liberal and a sexual abuser:

Spreading the message of progressivism was the job of the firm’s founder and president, Trevor FitzGibbon. But it didn’t stop him from being a sexist lout who preyed upon women. Per the Huffington Post’s reporting, the allegations of prospective employee Sierra Pedraja inspired many others who had experienced similar harassment and abuse from FitzGibbon, some of them his own employees. And he is hardly alone.

Vox’s Emily Crockett used a perfect phrase to describe workplaces like FitzGibbon Media: “putatively progressive.” Too often, it is assumed that the people who wear progressive labels put those ideals into practice in their personal and professional lives. FitzGibbon is an extreme example disproving that assumption, but this should be an alarm, particularly for men to examine themselves, especially liberals. They need to stop believing that liberalism elevates us over the possibility of being sexist, because that’s a Republican thing. Nor should we assume progressivism based upon a few nice tweets, rah-rah columns, or even actual work for liberal causes. FitzGibbon just showed that such work can be used in service not of ideals, but one’s own ego, power, or dick.

Or to put it another way; if the charges prove out, they lend further credence to Kate McMillan’s March of 2008 observation, which was proved out in spades that fall as Democrat operatives with bylines carved up Sarah Palin: “Scratch a progressive, and you’ll find a misogynist.” (See also: Playboy’s “hate-f*ck” meltdown the following year aimed towards conservative women; repeated racist smears to attack Michelle Malkin, etc.)

But man, the magical thinking that by merely having the correct ideology, a person is absolved of all sin is strong at TNR — and amongst the left in general.