The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word PARTY LINE
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More clues leading to the result PARTY LINE
- On which you might overhear political policy?
- Conga? Are members forced to follow it?
- Official policy to some extent silly, ultimately leading to row
- Alliance views shared link
- Alliance views shared link
- Pretentious Liberal getting into long, official position
- Official policy for celebration on border
- Split cable that’s attended to by one “on message”?
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Split cable" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case split cable = party line.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.