No, the true definition of rabid is these sort of snide attacks when someone questions your beliefs.
Um, no.
You've got a valid point - Abbott is skating in when he could be rigorously spotlighted. You've got some questions that you see as vital, and nobody's engaging.
In my experience, 99% of the population is grumpy with the government at any time over some matter that is important to them. Doesn't matter about the party or the issue - there's always something. Maybe it's the traffic lights at the end of the street, maybe it's the war, maybe whatever. They grump and they grumble, but by and large they put up with it.
And there's about 1% of the population that doesn't just shrug and whinge a little. They go out and single-mindedly complain, write letters to the editor, join lobby groups, mount midnight raids on chooksheds, throw paintbombs at offices and incite revolt amongst the peasantry. These are the rabid.
I like to think that here we are friends, grumbling about the policies and the politicians we don't like, just as we grumble about booking websites and not enough champagne in the lounges or priority boarding forcing us to line up and mingle with our fellow travellers. The horror.
Gillard stuffed up on a few things, Rudd stuffed up on a few things, Abbott will stuff up on a few things. Most of us grumble a bit, but we see getting on with life, enjoying our life in this wonderful nation, as more important than making our lives a misery stressing over things we can't change.
These political parties of ours - few of us belong to them, just like we don't belong to football teams - we cheer them on, we hurl good-natured abuse at the supporters of the other side, and we enjoy ourselves. We grumble about the shortcomings of the people we have to vote for, but we don't put our names forward as candidates.
So why are we getting upset and hot under the collar here in a very limited forum? There's only about a dozen of us here, scattered around the nation in different electorates. Nothing we do or say here will have any effect on the election. Just our own emotions. Choose happiness, I say.