Lipstick on a pig. That’s about the best description I’ve heard of the Republican Convention.

You can be sure the Republicans put on their kinder, gentler face, like they do every four years, and no doubt some of the un-thinking and brainwashed will be fooled again.

But for those of us who have been paying attention, it is clear how disingenuous this show of moderation really is. We’ve become accustomed to not just their doublespeak, but how nearly all their slogans actually signal the opposite of the actual truth.

From “Clear Skies” to “No Child Left Behind,” it’s a tour de force of hypocrisy and cynicism. There were few appearances by the neocons, Zionists and right-wing religious nuts that have been the driving force of George Bush’s regime, you can be sure.

No Perle, Wolfowitz, Limbaugh or Rumsfeld were trotted out for this party, where the object is to mollify and deceive true conservatives into thinking they still belong under the tent.

No, lipstick on a pig is way too mild a concept. It’s really more like in the sci-fi horror movies: when Cheney snarled that expletive at Sen. Leahy, the mask tore open just enough to see the really nasty alien underneath.

Bia Winter, Mount Vernon