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U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is firing back against critics who have assailed the self-described reformer for spending more than $100,000 of Republican Party funds on her outfits, makeup and hair styling.

Critics, including top-level Republicans, said they were outraged this past week when they learned that the GOP had spent US$150,000 to enhance Palin's image after she was picked as the party's VP choice.

Palin, who hit the campaign trail with GOP presidential hopeful John McCain in late August claiming she was just an "average hockey mom," has been clothed in designer outfits from high-end stores like New York's Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Campaign finance reports released on Friday show that during the first half of October, Palin's makeup artist was actually the highest paid McCain campaign staffer. They show that the Emmy-award winning stylist Amy Strozzi was paid $22,800 over a two-week period.

The costs of the Palin shopping spree breakdown as follows:

• $49,425 was spent at two Saks Fifth Avenue locations.
• $75,062 went to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis.
• $4,716 on hair and makeup in September alone.
• $4,902 was spent at Atelier, a top end men's store, suggesting the party also paid for some of Todd Palin outfits.

Some party members are livid. One GOP strategist went so far as to suggest that money could have been better spent helping struggling Republicans in tight congressional fights.

Palin has argued the whole controversy has been overblown. She says the clothes will be given away to charity after the election campaign ends, claiming she and her family are extremely frugal.

She told the Chicago Tribune late last week that all of the fuss proves a double standard the media applies to women and not to men. She even bolstered her claim by pointing to Hillary Clinton -- the woman she suggested was a whiner for making a similar argument during the Democratic primary.

"I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary race," Palin said in a Chicago Tribune.

"Do you remember the conversations that took place about her, say superficial things that they don't talk about with men, her wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that? That's a bit of that double standard."

But male politicians have also had their fashion controversies. Former president Bill Clinton created quite the uproar in the 1990s when he held up a plane on the tarmac so he could get a haircut from famed stylist Christophe Gaillet.

Reporters may also have been splitting hairs again when a similar controversy erupted last year about Democrat John Edwards' $400 haircut.

Even here in Canada, the chattering classes raised a fuss about some of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau's outfits. Are a turtleneck and blazer the type of attire befitting Parliament and the prime minister, they wondered.

Drag on the ticket?

Although the fashion controversy will likely fade, it could make Palin skeptics even more doubtful, says one political analyst. Washington-based radio host Mark Plotkin told Â鶹´«Ã½net this past week the controversy may highlight a bigger problem for Palin and McCain.

He says Palin is becoming an increasing drag on the ticket, losing ground with key constituencies McCain needs to win the White House.

"(Moderates and independents) just plain think she's not qualified to be president and have rendered a judgment about McCain's judgment," Plotkin said.

"You can't win with just Republicans."

Some party insiders also concerned that Palin may be costing McCain a significant number of Republican voters, as well.

Colin Powell, President George Bush's former secretary of state, cited Palin's unreadiness for the presidency as one of the reasons he endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Christopher Buckley, the son of William F. Buckley, the intellectual force behind the modern conservative movement, also jumped ship recently. One of his key reasons: Palin.

The VP nominee has also faced attacks from the likes of Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and New York Times conservative scribe David Brooks, who said she represented a "fatal cancer" to the GOP.

McCain has dismissed the Palin critics as elitists who are part of the "Georgetown cocktail" circuit.

But the polls indicate it may not only be elites who are worried about Palin. In fact, a CBS/New York Times survey released on Thursday suggests voters are increasingly concerned about the potential VP, as well.

The poll found that 31 per cent of respondents held a positive view of Palin, while 40 per cent viewed her unfavourably.