Democrats talk a good game when it comes to women’s issues … until one dares to run for office with an “R” for Republican after her name. As Time points out regarding their attacks on Joni Ernst, Democrats are “trying to turn her into a caricature” trying to paint her as “crazy.”

Here’s Democrat National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz at a recent Iowa event, “She’s like an onion of crazy; the more you peel back the layers, the more disturbing it is.” 

And again, Time is forced to point out, it’s typical of the Democrat attacks Ernst is experiencing. But it’s also not true.

This is the conventional wisdom Democrats have been pushing in this too-close-to-call race between State Sen. Ernst and Rep. Bruce Braley, the Democratic candidate to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin, also a Democrat: Ernst is an extreme, Tea Party nut job, the female version of Ted Cruz. The problem with this line of rhetoric is: it’s not true.

Given that it’s Time, one has to wonder if they aren’t almost hinting for Saturday Night Live to get involved in helping to elect just one more Democrat. But make no mistake, this is the Democrats employing the politics of personal destruction and perpetuating the so called war on women in politics at the very same time.

What the Time article demonstrates is that Ernst is an accomplished state legislator with an independent streak that’s resulted in her taking on the establishment at times, while other times not. That’s allowed to to garner the endorsement of both the Senate Conservative Fund and the Chamber of Commerce. But that’s not the woman Iowans will get to know if Democrats have anything bad to day about it, however untrue it may be.

It is hard enough to elect women to office where they still have less than 20% representation. It becomes exponentially harder when strong women are caricatured to political ends. This is no more true than with Republican women. There was a time when Democrats labeled Sen. Kelly Ayotte the “Sarah Palin of New Hampshire.” Ayotte has proven to be so un-Palinesque that Palin withdrew her endorsement years ago. 

Now, it seems, Ernst is one Tina Fey sketch away from being unfairly boxed into a persona she is working hard to avoid.