Scrambled Pundits

Watch Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan scramble to get back on the bus (Nooners is already rummaging through her handbag looking for the ticket stub) after an open mic caught them revealing their true feelings about the McCain-Palin comedy team. Political operatives are, as a rule, without much shame to begin with, but GOP operatives have made "shameless" a household word. They can lie one second, then lie about their lying the next, then tell a completely contradictory lie a second later - all while swearing on their mother's soul that the double skim latte mochaccino they're sipping is perked Maxwell House, black, foam on their upper lip notwithstanding.

Top G.O.P. Pundits Fault Palin Selection - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Updated ST. PAUL — Two prominent Republicans — one of them a close ally and former aide to Senator John McCain — were caught on a live mic on MSNBC bemoaning the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin and the controversy surrounding her.

Mike Murphy, who worked on Senator McCain’s campaign in 2000 but declined to join this year’s, citing tensions with top campaign staff members, can be heard in near-anguish talking about the fallout from her candidacy. “I come out of the blue, swing-state governor world, Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush” he said. But the McCain campaign just decided to run with Palin, he said, adding “it’s not going to work.”

Peggy Noonan, speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and columnist, interjects: “It’s over.”

(Update: Ms. Noonan offers her explanation for what she meant by “It’s over,” in a retop for her column at the Wall Street Journal. She insists she was referring not to the end of the McCain campaign, but to the idea that the party “can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people.”)

Technorati Tags: Mike Murphy, Peggey Noonan, the truth is out there, liars, McCain, Palin, back on the bus