But despite her more palatable branding, Hicks doesn’t deserve the gentle handling she’s gotten thus far, because she’s used her below-the-radar status to fight for the worst kind of people. And she certainly doesn’t deserve to be able to keep her head down and avoid the blowback from the fallout from how she tried to protect her boyfriend’s reputation during his exit from the White House.

Apart from being Porter’s girlfriend, Hicks is the White House communications director. And the White House’s handling of the resignation of Porter should bring all of Hicks’ publicly ascribed qualities into question. No matter how dedicated and efficient the White House communications director is, the White House’s wagon-circling around Porter paints Hicks as unprofessional, unethical, and unfit.

To paraphrase a cliché, there’s a special place in hell for women who choose to use what limited power they have to protect men who hurt women. And Hicks has devoted much of her professional life to doing just that.