Worn speech? For these guys it's a compliment

To Somerville's Nick Jehlen, the anti-Bush movement already had plenty of diehard peace marchers and sit-in veterans. What the left really needed, he and his friends thought, were some funny T-shirts.

''Could not tell a lie," reads a picture of George Washington on a shirt Jehlen will be hawking outside this week's Republican National Convention in New York City. ''Could," reads the caption under President Bush's photo.

''I made it clear to the world that either you're with us or you're with the enemy," reads a quote from Bush on another homemade shirt. ''ENEMY" reads the shirt's back. ''If Bush gets elected next time," jokingly asks a third shirt, ''does Gore get to be president?" For more adult humor, there are shirts with vulgar wordplays, the best-seller being a take-off on Bush's ''Axis of Evil" quote.

Jehlen and his friends -- Jethro Heiko, Heiko's wife, Chelsea Thompson, and Carrie Kim, dreamed up the first anti-Bush shirt about six months ago. Since then, they've sold hundreds of shirts on the Internet and at public events, most notably last month's Democratic National Convention.

The group would like to believe their slogans will sway voters in the upcoming election. But that's not necessarily the point of their silk-screening efforts, they say.

''I think one of our major contributions is sort of having a little bit of humor. The left has a reputation for being really sour, and I don't think that's any good," says Jehlen, 33, who has protested everything from the war in Iraq to the proposed demolition of Fenway Park. ''If you aren't having fun [protesting], then people aren't going to continue to do it."

Jehlen's mother, Patricia Jehlen, Somerville's longtime Democrat state representative, said she has a fondness for the ''Could not tell a lie" T-shirt.

''I completely agree with Nick," she said. ''He's very creative, and he's using his talents in a very positive manner to elect John Kerry."

As conventiongoers streamed down Merrimac Street on their way to the FleetCenter for the final night of the DNC, Jehlen, Heiko, and a few friends waved T-shirts like toreadors.

''Sweat-shop free T-shirts!" barked helper Dan Nolan of Cambridge as Jehlen handed out Chinese fortune cookies with predictions such as, ''You'll face an easy choice in the 11th month" and ''Beware of naked emperor with pants on fire."

''Oh Maria -- you got to see this one," passerby Will Bergmann called to his wife while reading the George Washington shirt. ''Very clever."

While not all who walked by appreciated the slogans -- ''Gross," snipped one woman after a glance -- for the most part they were a hit, Jehlen said.

Having sold 350 shirts in Boston, Jehlen and Heiko are lugging 650 shirts and 1,000 buttons to the RNC this week hoping to break even on their investment. At the very least, they'll get people to smile.

''I have a feeling that the number of protesters is going to outnumber the delegates by 10 to 1," Jehlen said. ''I think it's going to be our kind of crowd."