Well this is new- since the Senate hasn't rejected any nominee- the Senate majority have rejected the concept of providing advice and consent on nominees for the last quarter of the President's term in office.
Never thought I'd be quoting Sarah Palin to make a credible and valid point "Lipstick on a pig"
Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
― Ann Richards
Well, the following should abate your embarrassment at having thought you did. Alas, Ms. Palin is but one of several plagiarists of that phrase.
The concept is an old one. Many porcine proverbs describe vain attempts at converting something from ugly to pretty, or from useless to useful. The famous maxim that "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear" dates back at least to the mid-16th century. Other old sayings play on the ludicrousness of a pig getting dressed up. "A hog in armour is still but a hog" was recorded in 1732 by British physician
Thomas Fuller. As
Francis Grose later explained in
A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796), a "hog in armour" alludes to "an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed."
Charles H. Spurgeon noted another variation in his 1887 compendium of proverbs,
The Salt-Cellars: "A hog in a silk waistcoat is still a hog," meaning, "Circumstances do not alter a man's nature, nor even his manners."
The "lipstick" variation is relatively novel—not surprising, since the word
lipstick itself dates only to 1880. The incongruity of pigs and cosmetics was expressed as early as 1926 by the colorful editor
Charles F. Lummis, writing in the
Los Angeles Times: "Most of us know as much of history as a pig does of lipsticks." But the exact wording of "putting lipstick on a pig (or hog)" doesn't show up until much later. In 1985,
The Washington Post quoted a
San Francisco radio host on plans for renovating Candlestick Park (instead of building a new downtown stadium for the Giants): "That would be like putting lipstick on a pig."
Ann Richards did much to boost the saying's political popularity when she used a number of variations while governor of Texas in the early '90s. In 1991, in her first budget-writing session, she said, "This is not another one of those deals where you put lipstick on a hog and call it a princess." The next year, at a Democratic barbecue in South Dakota, she criticized the George H.W. Bush administration for using warships to protect oil tankers in the Middle East, which she considered a hidden subsidy for foreign oil. "You can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it is still a pig," she said. Richards returned to the theme in her failed 1994 gubernatorial race against the younger Bush, using the "call it Monique" line to disparage her opponent's negative ads.
Since then, "lipstick on a pig" has spiced up the political verbiage of everyone from Charlie Rangel to Dick Cheney. J
ohn McCain used it last year to describe Hillary Clinton's health care proposal. And even though the folksy expression is one that sounds old (and connects back to genuinely old proverbs), it's not quite the vintage of anyone's grandfather's grandfather.
-- Source:
Where does the expression "lipstick on a pig" come from?
I was surprised to find all that much about the saying. What I knew upon reading your remark above is that you truly need not rue that Sarah Palin used it before you. Perhaps more disconcerting to you (but most likely not) is that I, like the Southern members of my family, have been saying that since the 1970s. On the up side, anyone should be thrilled to quote Ann Richards. That firebrand of a woman had among the most charming personalities in politics. Now there was a straight talkin' politician.
After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.
― Ann Richards
