The Rev. Untouchable: The continuing, sorry saga of Jesse Jackson.

Jesse Jackson must be feeling fabulous these days. The nation's most recognizable cleric/politician has been caught knocking up an aide; has been caught lying about it; and is suspected of supporting his auxiliary family with crates of cash taken from organizational accounts. He has topped the gaudy display with an act of contritional blitzkrieg best measured by stopwatch and laughmeter.

It is true that any high-profile philanderer would be justified in feeling some degree of comfort in these circumstances. Having been found out, he must no longer bear the fear of discovery, which in Jackson's case may have been profound, as it is reported that this man of the cloth has long been a man of the sheets, too. Coming clean brings peace of mind, and peace of mind is one of the Good Lord's greater gifts.

Yet Jackson's sense of euphoria-for euphoria it must be-is born of a different source, a source his religion tells him to be very wary of. We speak, of course, of pride. Jackson now knows he can survive transgressions that would earn an ordinary preacher or politician a one-way ticket to oblivion. The big story from-let's call it Loingate-is that it reveals Jackson as an Untouchable. He did not dodge a bullet. Instead, the bullet struck him full in the chest-and bounced off.

And so the reverend has every reason to feel like Superman. He has broken a major commandment, but many in his flock don't seem to care. Even his wife of long standing, publicly at least, has made peace with the situation and will perhaps enlist herself as a baby-sitter. He has also dangled a significant hunk of investigatory bait in front of the media and Congress, in the form of questions regarding the possible expenditure of hundreds of thousands of donated dollars to relocate and sustain this side project. Yet neither the media nor Congress appears to be rising to the bait.

He has also suggested that anyone who pursues him has an agenda of racial nastiness. And so, even as a man caught fully with his pants down continues firing moral salvos at his critics, there is a distinct hesitancy to ring the hypocrisy bell, a bell that has tolled doom for lesser mortals, including a couple of recent Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives during the Clinton scandals.

Jesse Jackson now carries one of the most impressive resumes in public life. He is a counselor to presidents, a Wall Street rainmaker, a Democratic-party titan, an activist whose followers will take to the streets at his command, and a man who plays both roles in the media-a person who is covered (though in highly reverent fashion), and who covers others on his very own CNN talk show. Add to that this latest accomplishment: He walks upon the waters. At this writing, he has come out of the scandal stronger than he entered it. All of which is good news for Jesse, but bad news for most everyone else, including his political allies.

The first consideration, of course, should be the effect Loingate has on the nation's political and social health.