Dear Geist,
Which is correct: “painted with the same brush,” “tainted with the same brush” or “tarnished with the same brush”?

Dear Colette,
Actually it’s “tarred with the same brush.” To tar someone with the same brush is to assume they have the faults of someone they are associated with. For example: “Yes, both my brothers have been convicted of theft, but don’t tar me with the same brush.”
comes from a German word having to do with trees, and the expression is an old one that has nothing to do with tarring-and-feathering, or with any racist opinion or act. But it does have a whiff of menace; perhaps that’s why the variations have caught on (even though “tarnished with the same brush” doesn’t even make sense).
—The Editors