Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard, Dennis Shanahan and the merde Mark Latham moments mount up ...

(Above: a little macho posturing, please).

I recall a wise history teacher once telling his 15- year-old charges that those who learn most from history do so by marshalling empathy, not sympathy, for people and places. The same is true of the best leaders.

Janet Albrechtsen, here.

Unfortunately the empathy that Tony Abbott marshalled some months ago was for macho strutting, male posturing and action warrior movie posing ... and so merde happened.

Leaving aside the excuses and denials, it's easy to see why he said what in said, in the company of men, even if also unwisely in the company of cameras. Stuff happens, said Donald Rumsfeld, and so it does, especially in times of war ...

But Abbott knew the gotcha moment was coming - apparently his office fought the FOI for months to prevent the footage surfacing.

So what's the real train wreck, what's unnerving and compelling, after the gotcha moment finally landed with the Seven journalist, is the way Abbott stood mute, nodding, as if in the grip of anger management counselling, or a miniature psychotic breakdown. That's the real killer image. No dissembling, or apology, or evasion, or a reframing, nor any sign of benefit from months in the making, but an extended sullen silence.

Not sure what's being talked about? You mean you haven't already caught up with the whirl of comment surrounding Abbott's Afghanistan gaffe? Footage and story by Channel Seven here?

Well you won't find the story headlined online in The Australian - it's already been pushed down the queue - and instead you'll have to content yourself with Dennis Shanahan's typical trawl through the gutter in Do the PM's tears show the real Julia Gillard?

You see, when you're doing this kind of survey, of women and tears, and never mind the bawling male Liberals in the same house - and nothing wrong with that - anything said by any passing boofhead is fair game, and can be led in the debate.

Let's see how the smear works in detail.

Gillard has rejected the criticisms, arguing she is more about substance than style. She says Latham's claim that "anyone who chooses a life without children, as Gillard has, cannot have much love in them" ignores a long tradition of chaste, childless charity and love by tens of thousands of women. And the suggestion of taking up acting lessons to create a faux sympathy would only make things worse.

Yep, there's the boofhead, and there's the smear, and there's Gillard's defence, but no note from Shanahan that he's reproducing a boofhead remark by quoting the sad, unhappy and bitter Mark Latham. (And now we've been forced to reproduce the remarks of a boofhead to show another boofhead at work).

Instead Shanahan doubles down on the "claim":

What's more, the public have detected shortcomings beyond a rigid demeanour, epitomised by a mistake-free approach that suggests if you're not making mistakes, you're probably not doing anything at all.

You see. Perhaps she is or isn't capable of love, perhaps she does or doesn't have much love in her, but anyhow she's got a rigid demeanour, a kind of Miss Havisham presence, and as a result she's doing bugger all.

Then carry on with the litany, as if in a Catholic church, and nicely settled, with either bum on pew, or perhaps knee on kneeler (yes, if you want to know details about church architecture, it too is available on the full to overflowing internet here):

Acting lessons will not restore confidence about Gillard's ability to deal in international affairs, and follow through efficiently on promises and major programs, such as building school halls, introducing a carbon tax or setting up a regional processing centre for asylum-seekers.

What, no mention of the NBN? Shame, Shanahan shame (oh wait I see elsewhere in The Australian other minions of Murdoch are beavering assiduously, religiously away at that log with their sharp beaver teeth). Then you move in for the killer blow:

Indeed, this is the real doubt about Gillard. It's not that she is unsympathetic, but that she needs to demonstrate she can deliver outcomes and perform outside parliament.

But hang on, that's just blather. Imagine it transposed:

Indeed, this is the real doubt about Abbott. It's not that he's a mute catatonic when caught out by the camera, but that he needs to demonstrate he can deliver outcomes and perform outside parliament.

Yep, when you get down to discussing personal peccadillos, much of the allegedly informed discussion by the commentariat is just blather, words dressed up to hide the personal allegiances, while they send in the bilious vile barbs.

So you get Mal Farr explaining at inordinate length that Julia Gillard was actually and genuinely crying, and not faking it, in Tears flow like floodwater, and not a crocodile in sight. No doubt over time the piece will receive any number of comments that Gillard was indeed faking it ...

Meanwhile, the yapping poodle otherwise known as Christopher Pyne was out and about defending Tony Abbott's 'merde' moment, and if you can stand it - I think I'd rather be in the briar patch - you can find him yapping here at the ABC in Pyne defends Abbott's digger comments.

Meanwhile, Dr No himself had surely presided over one of the more risible moments in his recent empathetic leadership.

Of all the cuts to propose - having worked himself into a corner whereby he felt the need to deliver cuts - surely the cuts to foreign aid are the worst.

Unless of course all that talk about countering regional terrorism and forming a deep friendly bond with Indonesia is just blather.

Because the implication is that, instead of Australians paying for Australian flood damage, the children of Indonesia should do it, and Australian government aid can be yanked on a whim, and the government's word isn't its bond, and if you feel in older age that you've learnt your lessons well at a Madrasah Islāmiyyah, feel free to go on to bomb Bali. Just please make sure a few children of Liberal politicians are having a beer in the bar ...

Michelle Grattan noticed in Anger Over Abbott's Digger Remark:

Abbott's determination to take hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign aid was provocative, and his targeting of Australian aid to Indonesian schools, which was originally an Alexander Downer initiative, was the worst of choices.

Indonesia is a vital neighbour, and the program had a counter-terrorism dimension.

In specifying cuts, Abbott has put lead in his saddle bag.

The night they did old Downer down, all the bells were ringing ...

Even the redoubtable Greg Sheridan noticed in Two bad blunders ruin one very brave decision:

Building schools in Indonesia is about the best possible use Australian aid money could be put to. It is right that our aid emphasises the Asia-Pacific while European aid emphasises Africa.

Also, if Abbott looks as though he can't handle Indonesia, it will threaten his credentials to be prime minister.

Sheridan's solution is to blame Julie Bishop and Abbott's front bench, but there was jolly Joe Hockey out there doing his thing, bravely defending the leader, while Heather Ewart wisely concentrated, not on the merde, but on the way Abbott handled his response to the Seven journalist (Hockey on flood levy).

And lordy what do you know. The real rather than the fake Tony Abbott emerged from the ruck:

HEATHER EWART: Is there a pattern that you may be concerned about here in the way that Tony Abbott sometimes answers these questions from the media?

JOE HOCKEY: You know what, there's nothing confected about Tony Abbott. He doesn't stage-manage things for the media. He is a real person. He has real feelings.

Uh huh. So that's the real Tony Abbott, with real, catatonic, mute, enraged feelings and anger management issues.

And the fact that he had a first chance response of wanting to ring the wife of the digger who may have been offended just illustrates he is a very decent man and he has a very decent heart.

Such a decent heart that he feels the need to put the boot into Indonesian children.

Well we'll leave the reaction of the Australian soldier's father's response (Dead Digger's father sickened by Abbott gaffe) to concentrate on one item within that story:

Liberal MPs who have grown critical of their leader said they believed Mr Abbott's visibly furious reaction to the reporter Mark Riley was more damaging than what he said in Afghanistan.

''Abbott's had his Latham moment,'' one MP said.

Sadly, the Latham moment was actually in relation to Indonesian children, but don't expect much about that from the Australian media.

After all, merde happens ...

(Below: Pakistani students at an Islamic madrassa helping out Tony Abbott with his Indonesian educational policies, found here).