As the Vice's Vices Stack Up, GOP Says 'Life Happens'

Sarah Palin has brought an “onslaught of wild soap opera storylines” to the McCain campaign, and his party is defending itself by insisting that “life happens,” Maureen Dowd observes in the New York Times. Palin already has a Troopergate, a pregnant teen daughter, and a National Enquirer headline —and the party that once attacked such narratives is now using them to its advantage.

Republicans argue that “Todd’s old DUI arrest or Sarah’s messy family vengeance story will just let them relate better to average Americans,” Dowd notes. But, just as John McCain has played the POW card when “in trouble,” Republicans are “pulling out the sexist card” in response to attacks on Palin. “But when you use sexism as an across-the-board shield for any legitimate question,” Dowd writes, “you only hurt women.” (More Sarah Palin stories.)