“Let’s not perfume the pig here. The Democrats have some seriously deep fissures that they are going to have to mend outside of any formal rules committee.”

— Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, in a May 29 appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

 “Lipstick on a pig!”

— A heckler at the May 31 meeting of the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which ruled on Michigan’s and Florida’s primary delegates.

 “You can put lipstick on a pig, but guess what? It’s still a pig.”

— Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), discussing in April 2004 a Bush administration proposal to eliminate overtime pay.

“You know the old saying about putting lipstick on a pig? Well, I smell bacon.”

— Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) in a May 21 House floor speech on U.S. trade policy.

“Calling this surrender a ‘withdrawal’ or a ‘redeployment’ is like putting lipstick on a pig. No matter what you call it, it is still a pig.”

— Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) during an April 26 speech on the Senate floor about supplemental funding for the Iraq war.

Definition: (phrase) an expression used to illustrate that something unattractive cannot be beautified or otherwise positively changed by any amount of makeup or other exterior alterations.

Suggested synonyms: ignoring faults, overlooking substantive problems.   

Synonyms Congress members should avoid: giving Medusa a makeover, primping a gorilla, shampooing a mullet.

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