Lipstick Serenade

The metaphor so "creatively" used by the Republicans has a rather long history!

Regarding lipstick....here's one:

“Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.”
(Mary Pickford)

But the form of the tactic is not restricted to that controversial tube of colored chemicals.

"President Lincoln had great doubt as to his right to emancipate the slaves under the War power. In discussing the question, he used to like the case to that of the boy who, when asked how many legs his calf would have if he called its tail a leg, replied, 'five,' to which the prompt response was made that calling the tail a leg would not make it a leg." (from The Project Gutenberg Etext of Lincoln's Yarns and Stories by Colonel Alexander K. McClure)

In other words, declaring slaves emancipated wouldn't mean that they really would be emancipated. No one misunderstood him....either by mistake or by intent!