In which the heat in the kitchen blows back on the feckless, fearful leader ...

Now the pond isn't a grammar Nazi - we save that for soup - but every day it occurs to the pond that it could make a business out of marvelling at what allegedly professional sites get up to ...

And then there's the nonsense to be encountered whenever you break the golden rule and read the comments beneath a viperish Bolter column:

Actually Allan the problem is you're a fuckwitted speller, and as a bonus, a fuckwit with a very loose understanding of the meaning of the word you're mis-spelling. Why don't you do a Greg Hunt?

Indigenous people are those groups especially protected in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations. (here)

Now the pond, what with the daily errors induced by NZ subs who simply won't listen, isn't in a position to throw stones ...

So perhaps it's also time to admit that the real reason the pond started off this way is to avoid the bleeding obvious.

Come on David Pope, induce a collective groan, a sigh of eternal pain (and more Pope here):

Ah the prescient Pope, the leadership issue ...

Yes, the Bronniechopperentitlementeversosorrygate affair has taken a new and satisfying turn, in which the commentariat now brood about the doings of Dumbo, aka the gutless wonder, aka the fearful, feckless leader.

Naturally the Fairfaxians are at the head of this particular pack. This in the AFR and below that, Kenny having multiple bites in the main masthead:

But it's not just Fairfax.

Even the reptiles have noted the issue:

Bold action? Bold action from Tony Abbott? PM's choice?

The fairy floss candy man is being called on to take bold, decisive action?

Look at the illustration even the reptiles think they can now run:

So what does Abbott do? How does he make his presence felt? Well, just above that urgent plea from the bouffant one comes this, with bonus thuggee impression photo:

Say what?

What a dumbo, what a gherkin, what a useless and yes, a gutless wonder.

Now some News Corp minions are doing their very best to sow confusion:

That third reason? Everybody's doing it, and nothing can be done about it because both sides do it, and waiter, bring a bowl of water, and let me ritually wash my paws, while declaring she should resign but she won't, and that's an end of the matter ...

By golly, it sounded like Simon Benson was lining up for a job in Abbott's office ...

Naturally the comments below took up the refrain, berating Labor and Slipper and Andrew Wilkie because it's all their fault that Bronnie is in such trouble ...

Meanwhile, what's the response of the fearful, feckless leader?

Feed them tripe and B.A. Santamaria.

And help prattling Polonius launch his book.

Okay, the pond will bite:

It's hard to count the number of times that Abbott has endorsed Santamaria supporting the fascist Franco. The bullets fired by the fascists might well have come from Hitler himself - the bombs and the planes certainly did - and Spain had to endure decades of corruption as a result of the outcome of the civil war.

But because Abbott is an addle-brained, simple-minded zealot, of fundamentalist Catholic stock and training and inclination - see the way he started to hang around the Pellists - reciting a few lines like a parrot is what he's good at.

There's more of it, of course ... got to get in that ringing endorsement of Polonius for being a brave cultural warrior who lived the life...

Say what? The reptiles put a gold bar over a speech by Abbott which no doubt in due course will turn up on his website and be available for free?

And even worse, it's just a man plugging a book for a Catholic mate? And coming out with gut-wrenching, jaw-breaking, historically astonishing and inept lines like Santamaria coming to be seen as the Edmund Burke of Australian conservatism?

All the more poignant because of a quote noted in a pond comment:

I hope that our opponents will end their flirtation with the ideas and the fears of the past. (hat-tip UC, here).

Well it's pure comedy gold, arising from the piquancy of delusional optimism, but how does it help the government of the moment?

In no way at all, though it does explain why Abbott really doesn't have a clue about what to say about Adam Goodes.

How to act like a statesman and how to tackle the viper Bolter and the rest of the clamouring racists, demanding of all things, an apology from the victim.

How to nudge the 72 year old Bishop out the door with a hearty thanks and a new broom.

It's not going to go away. Even Clive can suddenly bask in the glory of denouncing the entitlement culture.

And the more Abbott skulks behind closed doors or only steps out to celebrate Edmund Burke down under, the worse it's going to be when parliament resumes.

Sadly, it seems that Abbott has already reached that point in the senility charts known to many ... he's happiest living in the past and the glory days of the great feuds of his student years ... along with Greg Sheridan, prattling Polonius and the rest of the angry old white men who scribble for the lizard Oz ...

And that's why we get headlines like this:

Gone to skulking ground. Doggo. In a funk unworthy of Burke. Unable to grasp the nettle or even the Bronnie ... as they used to say in Tamworth, and perhaps still do, a gutless wonder ...

And meanwhile cartoonists have an easy option (and more Fairfax cartoons here):

That's the hand of almost everyone else, except for Tony Abbott ...