The tabloids had a field day. “Jesse Jackson’s Love Child,” blared The National Enquirer, the tabloid that disclosed the story of Jackson’s infidelity. “His 38-year marriage blows up over secret family.” The New York Post published a similar headline: “Rev. Jesse’s Love Child.” It added, “’I love her very much,’ he says of 20-month-old daughter.”

The more respectable Washington Post, even though a day late, played the story on page one: “Jackson Apologizes, to Take Time Off,” it noted. “Civil Rights Leader Admits Fathering Child Outside Marriage.”

Surprisingly, the strongest rebukes of Jesse Jackson came from two veteran African-American journalists, Jack E. White of Time magazine and Clarence Page of The Chicago Tribune.

Under the headline, “The End of the Rainbow,” White was acerbic: “It’s time to give him another Rolex, thank him for his service and send him out to pasture.” White, offering a variation of one of Jackson’s popular slogans, ended his column by saying “his time has gone.”

Page’s column carried the headline, “Could This Latest Episode Be the End of the Rainbow?” Page asked, “Can he recover? Maybe. But after covering Jackson off and on for about 30 years I think these wounds look permanent. If this is not the end of the rainbow for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition leader, you can at least begin to see the beginning of the end from here.”

Jack and Clarence are my colleagues. They are my friends. And they are wrong. Jesse Jackson is one of the last persons I’d count out, especially among African-Americans, noted for their ability to forgive rapists and former athletes who had little to do with them until they got into trouble with the law. Yes, he’ll be crippled for a while but he’s been counted out before, only to come back with some dramatic gesture to remind all of us of just how special he is.

For now, Jesse Jackson will have to deal with the residuals of his self-inflicted wound. Always one to invoke “moral authority” when pressing his case, the minister will have a more difficult time now getting people to believe he should be listened to on moral grounds.

Another problems is that for much of his career, Jackson has made it a point to stop by high schools in cities he was visiting, reminding students that they are “somebody,” urging them to strive for excellence, and warning against the dangers of drugs and sexually transmitted diseases. Now that it has been disclosed that Jackson, at the age of 56, engaged in unprotected sex outside of his marriage, what student will want to hear anything he might say on that subject?

Anytime something like this happens, the conspiracy buffs come out in full force. We are so quick to accept these unfounded assertions that if we don’t watch it, we’re going to end up giving conspiracies a bad name. If Republicans were truly out to get Jesse Jackson, it seems to me, they would have done so during the general election, when he was lining up African-American voters behind Al Gore, not after Republicans had already hijacked the election.

As we have already seen, Jesse Jackson’s time off from the public spotlight lasted only a few days. He is back in public view, apologizing for his behavior, professing his love for his wife, asking for forgiveness and reminding everyone that “all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Certainly, Jesse Jackson isn’t the first public official to have been caught with his pants down. According to historians, George Washington had a longtime affair with his best friend’s wife, President Warren Harding was said to have had two mistresses and frequently made love in a White House closet, Franklin Roosevelt lived at one end of the White House with his mistress while his wife, Eleanor, lived at the other end with her gay lover; Lyndon Johnson boasted of having sex with secretaries in the Oval Office; one of his mistresses described him as “a little kinky.” We now know that John F. Kennedy treated the White House as if it were the Playboy Mansion. And Bill Clinton could have changed the name of the Oval Office to the Oral Office.

Democrats don’t have a monopoly in this area. U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican from Illinois and one of Bill Clinton’s harshest critics, blamed “youthful indiscretion” for his affair, which took place well into adulthood. Another Republican, Bob Livingston, abandoned his all-but-certain House speakership when it was disclosed that he had cheated on his wife. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia also had at least one extramarital affair and has since married his girlfriend. U.S. Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana acknowledged that he, like Jesse Jackson, had a child out of wedlock. And former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage of Idaho proved that men aren’t the only ones who can cheat.

Jackson may have been able to argue that his private indiscretions should have nothing to do with his public role had it not been for one major miscalculation. At the time he was counseling President Clinton on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he was already having an affair with one of his staff members and becoming her baby’s daddy.

More important than the personal travails of Jesse Jackson, are the issues he worked so valiantly to preserve such as affirmative action, economic justice and political power. Jesse Jackson plays an important role in helping us keep our eyes on the prize. It is a role he should continue to play. And what happened in his personal life is a matter the good reverend will have to take up with God.