What 'Highly Disciplined GOP Message Machine'?

Politico:

President Barack Obama may or may not be able to save the U.S. auto industry, but his dramatic restricting plan is already having some effect: It's sent the highly disciplined GOP message machine careening out of control.

This isn't a knock at Politico..er...POLITICO, but since when has the GOP benefited from a "highly disciplined ... message machine?"  When Congress debated the stimulus package, the party was united, but everything pretty much fell apart after that. Come to think of it, with the exception of the stimulus unity, the GOP message machine has been off-kilter since before the 2006 elections.  I keep reading stories about how "Republican strategists" are on the verge of coming up with sparkling new strategies, but they never seem to materialize. The haggling over the wisdom of putting out an alternative budget is a symptom, and not a cause, of a party that lacks a leader and lacks even the patina of common cause among its various factions.