Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? -Matthew 7:16, KJV

Michelle’s jihad du jour is against John McCain’s inability to go after his own staff for trashing Sarah Palin. Michelle is so angry she called Johnny Mac by the horrifyingly uncivil nickname “McLame.”

From the man whose best-sellers include “Why Courage Matters” and “Character Is Destiny” comes this underwhelming reaction to the cowardly smearing of Sarah Palin by his own unnamed staffers: “These things happen.”

Not: “Shame on the leakers. I denounce and renounce them.”

Not: “I’m going to get to the bottom of this and make sure those blabbermouths never work in a major campaign again.”

Just: “These things happen.”

Yup. Business as usual from The Maverick’s not-so-maverick campaign:

(A la Pundit also provided a video of Michelle’s appearance on Cavuto, in which Michelle mewls.)

A first point: Michelle is taking this whole episode far too personally. This would be like getting pissed at Ben Affleck for saying J-Lo was the reason Gigli sucked so bad. Michelle never liked McCain and detested having to support his candidacy. But she did it anyway. And against her better judgment.

Not that she should have latched onto Gov. Palin so readily; she is the Executive of the #1 welfare state in the Union after all. And that gets into the thick of it. Senator McCain is going to back to the United States Senate and probably taking a good portion of his staff with him. Sarah Palin is going back to that great, snowy, welfare state of Alaska (i.e., paradise for hillbillies in Washington-speak).

The Senator likely knows who is smearing Palin, post-Epic Fail.

The Senator is convinced that the rumors are true.

Nothing Michelle can do will make Sen. McCain give a shit. No amount of questioning his character. It doesn’t matter how frequently she labels hidden enemies as suffering from “Palin Derangement Syndrome.”

MM = Irrelevant.