When news of Jesse Jackson’s infidelity first became public, it was inevitable that the jokes and political cartoons would soon follow. And they did. A friend e-mailed me from Cleveland, ”Jesse should have followed his own advice: ‘Stay out of the bushes.’”

One cartoon must have set a record for the fastest-circulated piece of art on the Internet. A baby rhymes in typical Jesse Jackson fashion: “Quit your hesitatin’/This is aggravatin’/ For a changin’ I’m waitin’/My diaper’s irritatin.’” In the cartoon, Jackson observes, “She’s mine, all right.” Also making the rounds in cyberspace was a purported “statement” from Jesse Jackson that was also set to Jacksonian poetry.

Of course public figures are fair game for editorial cartoonists, comedians and people who need to get a life. What is not fair, however, is pretending that Jackson’s behavior was rare among public figures or that African-Americans, even when they are ensnarled in controversy, are not judged by a double-standard.

People who are quick to rebuke Jesse Jackson have been silent when conservatives have been caught with their pants down, so to speak. Take the case of Matthew J. Glavin, president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation. The Right-wing legal group, based in Atlanta, has led the charge to end the city’s highly successful affirmative action program. It prevailed in getting the U.S. Supreme Court to forbid Census officials from using population estimates when defining legislative districts.

The group sought to have Bill Clinton disbarred in Arkansas because of statements he made in connection with the Paula Jones case. When it came to pontificating on “moral” issues, such as whether gays should be allowed to serve in the Boy Scouts, it was difficult to find a more sanctimonious group.

That was the public posture of the foundation and its leader, Matthew J. Glavin. But the private one was another matter. We now know that Glavin, who has been president and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation since 1994, was arrested in May for the second time on public indecency charges. In 1996, two years after he became president, Glavin pleaded guilty to public indecency and was fined $1,000 and placed on six months probation, according to Atlanta news reports.

Last May, according to U.S. Park Service Officer Brett Morris, Glavin was observed in a gay cruising area of the Chattahoochee River National Park in suburban Gwinnett County. Morris, who was working as an undercover park ranger, said Glavin masturbated in front of him and then fondled Morris’ groin. When Glavin’s arrest was made public, he quickly resigned from the foundation. Not only was Glavin’s arrest downplayed or not reported at all in many media outlets, I don’t remember seeing one editorial cartoon about his double life.

Glavin’s double-life brings to mind other conservatives who masqueraded as being proponents of “family values” in public but used a different standard when it came to the “family jewels.”

-- Rep. Donald “Buz” Lukens was a conservative Republican congressman from Ohio in the early 1990s. But he evidently was not conservative in his social life. He was convicted of having sex with a 16-year-old Black girl. He plied her with liquor and paid her $40 to have sex with him in a Columbus, Ohio apartment, according to court testimony.

-- Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) was caught in a car with a prostitute after midnight, according to a police report. Yet, he was not even charged with a crime until a local newspaper sued the department to gain access to pertinent records.

-- Rep. Daniel Crane, a Danville, Ill. dentist, admitted having sex with a 17-year-old House page. He bet the page a six-pack of beer on a basketball game. When he won, he took the teenager to his suburban apartment and had sex with her. In 1984, the Republican lawmaker was censured by his colleagues. A year later, the Christian Voice, a conservative lobbying group, gave him a perfect rating on “key moral and family issues.”

-- Rep. Bob Packwood of Oregon was forced to resign in 1995 after 27 years in the Senate when various charges of sexual misconduct were filed against him. Among the accusations against Packwood was that fondled a 16-year-old girl and made advances toward another teenager when he learned her parents weren’t home.

Democratic congressmembers also have their share of tawdry officials. Gary Studds, a Massachusetts Democrat, was reprimanded for taking a male Congressional page to his Georgetown apartment to have sex. Another Massachusetts Democrat, Barney Frank, was reprimanded by Congress after he acknowledged having paid for homosexual sex in the mid-1980s. And Rep. Mel Reynolds of Chicago was recently released from prison after serving time for seducing a 16-year-old campaign worker.

Not even Jesse Jackson tries to defend his behavior. In a word, it was wrong. But let the record be clear - he has plenty of company.