The nightmare goes on for a political party in crisis as we learn things we already know about Donald Trump.

So sorry, Republican Party, that your standing with women is now being besmirched by the presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who has belittled women over the years. Imagine the head of the Miss Universe pageant saying such bawdy and tawdry things as The New York Times reported yesterday. The mogul is extremely obsessed with the looks of women all around him, according to interviews with women who dated and worked for him.

Even Trump's own daughter, Ivanka, was not immune from her father's office commentary – was she hot or not? Of course she was. She is being groomed to run the Trump company, the Times said.

Men like that are a dime a dozen. Cutting comments on women's clothes and bodies are meant to keep us in our place. It's an entitlement that some rich men enjoy, in front of others, as a way to assert their power or superiority in the marketplace. It happens. In fairness, the Times spoke with several women who said Trump helped them professionally, such as a Bulgarian immigrant filmmaker, Laura Chukanox, formerly a Miss Utah. Another was lawyer and executive in the Trump organization, Jill Martin.

However, even more mocking and disgusting was Trump's locker-room talk with radio shock jock Howard Stern – sharing about whom he thought he could seduce. Diana, Princess of Wales? Dream on. (That was reported earlier.)

A public man should show more dignity and respect in his conduct in the public square. Sure. But the stance of the Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is noncommittal: "People just don't care," he said on "Fox News Sunday," referring to Trump's reported coarse mistreatment of women over the years. "People" in Trump's base might not care; other people do.

What Priebus is really saying: The party can't control its presumptive nominee. He's a runaway from the barn. The party is going to watch this play out, like everybody else.

Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, can't just look the other way. As the leading woman of a generation, she can't let herself be silenced or defined by Trump, like a wide swath of women in his wake.

With the most gender-divided election in American history looming on the horizon, Clinton can play a few opening notes like, "Bill and I were invited to Donald's third wedding." The Clintons, despite their marital strife, are still together – no small thing. Bill's sins are forgiven – washed in the river of American history.

Unlike the 2008 playbook, Clinton should be prepared to speak to the status of women and her own life experience. Trump brings up "the woman card" because that's exactly what he doesn't want to discuss and defend: his record with women.

This is not about laws – it's about dignity, opportunity, morals and culture, especially in the workplace.