Liberal Senator Corey Bernardi attracts critics by the score

“Cory is deluded,” says a Liberal Party colleague.

“He is one of the least effective or important members of the parliamentary team.

Cory is a person without any intellect, without any base,

and he should really never have risen above the position of branch president.

His right-wing macho-man act is just his way of looking as though he stands for something.”

[The Monthly December 2011]

January 2014 is turning into a cruel month for that notorious Liberal Party political wingnut and former Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott, Senator Cory Bernardi.

First he found himself satirized and criticized in citizen book reviews on Amazon, then he was publicly attacked by colleagues.

The Sydney Morning Herald 9 January 2013:

Liberal senator Sue Boyce has accused Cory Bernardi of lacking compassion and ''genuine Christianity'' in his attacks on ''non-traditional'' families and women who have abortions.

The Guardian 8 January 2013:

...the north Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch, who has a record of advocating on behalf of same-sex couples, has since offered a more vigorous response, raising concern over Bernardi’s “obsessions” with gay people. He asked whether Bernardi would advocate sterilisation if a member of his family turned out to be gay.

“It worries me,” Entsch told Fairfax Media in a story published on Wednesday. “You've really got to watch out for those that have these obsessions. He who protests the loudest …”

Entsch also said that as a stepfather he was offended by Bernardi's comment that a biological mother and father who were married represented the ''gold standard'' for children's development.

News Corp Australia quoted Bernardi as saying he had no comment about Entsch’s criticism “as the lawyers are having a look at it”.

“I have learned never to have public spats with colleagues who speak of books they haven't read,” he told a journalist via text message. "It's generally a waste of time."

However, it doesn’t end there for this senator from South Australia - a website exists, Sorry About Cory, on which his fellow South Australians apologise for Bernardi’s activities in advance:

Then there is a Facebook account solely dedicated to those who have offended Bernardi, People Blocked By Cory Bernardi's Page:

This boy -- let's call him Troy -- grew up with hopes and dreams, believing Australia is a free society, where we all had a right to express our opinions unfettered by those in power and by those who seek it.

But then, years later, he came up against Senator Cory Bernardi.

The boy, now a man, asked Cory innocently: "If free speech is for all, then why have you blocked my friend?" Cory's response? He banned Troy from asking Cory a question ever again.

Tragedies like this have become all too common. Don't let this happen to you. Do whatever Cory tells you. Believe whatever Cory believes. Before we're all banned from asking questions

Senator Bernardi must be longing for 11 February to arrive - when all MPs and senators return to Parliament House and he can rely on his colleagues to find even more outrageous ways to offend voters.