GOP mega-stars U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin - both top Republicans who buck the status quo - have been unfairly mocked and broadsided with loaded, gender-biased questions, prominent women from both parties told the Herald yesterday.

"You have two women who've captured the attention of the general public and were climbing in the polls, and they face a higher bar," said Shannon O'Brien, a Democrat whose campaign was painted as "unbecoming" by Mitt Romney when she ran for governor against him in 2002. "In order to be taken seriously as a candidate . . . a woman must do a better job and go further to credential herself with the public."