(h/t Heather)

The Republican Party has always had amazing message discipline when it comes to their talking heads. They have their talking points and dutifully repeat them verbatim, echoing throughout the media until they become accepted conventional wisdom, regardless of the truth of the matter.

That's what makes this segment from The Larry King Show so fascinating. The inclusion of Sarah Palin on the Hate Talk Express appears to have actually derailed the Republican Party too. And these talking heads, columnist Kathleen Parker, consultant Michelle Laxalt and Bay Buchanan, once so reliably in tune with the GOP, are imploding and scattering in different directions. Buchanan, sticks with the party line, even making up stats (90% of Republicans are behind this ticket? Uh, not even close). Parker sticks with her well-documented assertion that Palin should leave the ticket for the good of the party. And Laxalt takes feminist umbrage (seriously, what's a feminist doing in the GOP anyway) with the misogynistic bent of the McCain handlers, who send out a neophyte female politician but aren't "man" enough to not back her up:

In my estimation, she is being used unfairly as a tool by a team who, by the way, do not even support, nor does their candidate, equal pay for women for equal work. So if she is going to be the traditional vice presidential attack dog -- which I concur with Bay, that's very much a traditional role -- why didn't her male running mate, i.e. the candidate himself, man up and speak to those issues, calling his opponent essentially unpatriotic, calling him a terrorist? I'm sorry. This is not the Republican Party that Bill Buckley, that Paul Laxalt, that Ronald Reagan raised me on. And I don't believe the American people like this kind of dirty politics. If they can't win fair and square, they shouldn't trash the other guy.

Transcripts below the fold

KING: Michelle, the last time you were with us, you had doubts about the ticket because of her.

Where do you stand now?

MICHELLE LAXALT, GOP CONSULTANT: I have increasing doubts, Larry, about the ticket. And my doubts center around what I see the McCain management team doing with Governor Palin. I see a team who brought a young governor onto a national scene, tossed her into the deep end five weeks before November. I see them managing her. I hear from inside the McCain campaign that she is essentially being treated like a secretary or a staffer, not a genuine vice presidential running mate. And I think it is absolutely confirmed that when they send her out, this good 'ole boy team -- some of whom, parenthetically, Governor Reagan and my father, Senator Laxalt, fired from the Reagan campaign for these kinds of dirty tricks.

They have sent this young, naive, very confident, perhaps, in Alaska, young woman out with the most incendiary talking points, the most dangerous...

KING: All right...

LAXALT: ...racist talking points. And I think they should be ashamed of themselves.

KING: All right. The content of her -- Bay, the concept of her being an attack dog, let's watch this and get Bay to comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PALIN: I think the phoniest claim in a campaign that's been full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes.

(LAUGHTER)

PALIN: He's not willing to drill for energy, but he's sure willing to drill for votes.

(LAUGHTER)

PALIN: And you mean to tell me that he didn't know that he had launched his own political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: All right, Bay, is all fair in love and war?

Is that fair?

BAY BUCHANAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, SUPPORTS MCCAIN: Sarah Palin is point for this campaign. She is doing a remarkable job. It is the vice presidential's job to be the attack dog. And she does an exceptional one -- with a sense of humor, with grace, but she makes the point extremely tough. I mean she goes right for the throat against this guy, raises very, very legitimate issues and causes the national media to start to talk about this, something they've seemed, up to this point, refused to do...

KING: All right, is she...

BUCHANAN: ...what's the true character of Barack Obama?

KING: Is she helping?

BUCHANAN: Oh, I mean you can't -- there's no argument there whatsoever. She has clearly done a remarkable job. Not only did she energize the base, she delivered the base to John McCain. What she now still holds, over 90 percent of Republicans behind this ticket.

KING: But...

BUCHANAN: She basically brought tens of thousands of people to rallies -- Obama level rallies now, because of Sarah Palin. Seventy million people, Larry, turned in to see that debate. Seventy million. They weren't looking at Biden, I'll guarantee you.

KING: But, Kathleen, since the debate, Obama is 9 points ahead.

PARKER: Yes. I don't think Sarah Palin is helping McCain. I really don't. Absolutely, she's animating the base. The base is practically hysterical with animation. But he already has the base. You know, the base is not going to vote for Obama.

So she's not helping him with people he needs, which are women voters, who have left him en masse to go back to Obama and with Independents and moderates, who are leaving the McCain camp. And I think many of them were leaning toward him, but now because of her and because of some of this incendiary language, they're moving the other way.

So I don't think that's helpful...

BUCHANAN: Larry...

PARKER: And...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're over.

PARKER: Yes?

BUCHANAN: Larry, that's just -- she's completely inaccurate. I hate to tell you this, but number one, McCain never had the base -- never, until Sarah Palin. That was Sarah Palin's job and she did it perfectly.

And the second point is, for three weeks after that convention, we were climbing. She, Sarah Palin, managed to basically eliminate the bump the Democrats got out of their convention. And we moved ahead because of Sarah Palin.

The day we started to drop was the day the banks collapsed. And you can look at all of the polls you want and blame it on Sarah, but it has a whole lot more to do with the environment than it does Sarah.

KING: Michelle, are you not supporting the ticket?

LAXALT: Look, I think -- I can't believe the tone of this conversation. Here we are, three conservative, loyal Republican women. And we are talking about a female who could be the vice president of the United States of America.

In my estimation, she is being used unfairly as a tool by a team who, by the way, do not even support, nor does their candidate, equal pay for women for equal work. So if she is going to be the traditional vice presidential attack dog -- which I concur with Bay, that's very much a traditional role -- why didn't her male running mate, i.e. the candidate himself, man up and speak to those issues, calling his opponent essentially unpatriotic, calling him a terrorist?

I'm sorry. This is not the Republican Party that Bill Buckley, that Paul Laxalt, that Ronald Reagan raised me on. And I don't believe the American people like this kind of dirty politics. If they can't win fair and square, they shouldn't trash the other guy.

BUCHANAN: Michelle...

KING: All right, Bay. There's more to come.