Why Is the Murdoch Press Taking the Piss...

... out of Tony Abbott?

Arthur Sinodinos, assistant treasurer, reckons he's "a higher primate who has learned from experience..." (From Spartacus to Fabius, The Australian, 17/9/13)

A "higher primate," eh? (Hm... not quite sure about "higher" there.)

Is it his hairy chest and back, his simian gait, or both?

Murdoch pundit Nick Cater reckons: "Abbott's cultural detractors have consistently underestimated the man, and would dearly love to categorise him as reactionary, stupid or mendacious. Yet Abbott is a more substantial figure than that... Abbott is an intellectual who has fought political correctness from his student days and is not about to give up." (Abbott muscling up in fight for ideas, The Australian, 24/9/13)

He means he's a boofhead, right?

Finally, another Murdoch pundit, Miranda Devine, wrote this in a piece ostensibly about Julie Bishop:

"During the election campaign she explained Abbott's success. He wasn't a leader in the Great Man mould." (Women should learn from Julie, Sunday Telegraph, 22/9/13)

"A leader not in "the Great Man mould"?

I see, more like jock itch then. What a bitch! (Miranda, that is.)