SWITCH OFF JESSE'S SPOTLIGHT.(Rev. Jesse Jackson)(Brief Article)

On the heels of revelations he fathered a child with his mistress, the Reverend Jesse Jackson has tumbled further from the moral high ground by adding former Chicago Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll. Reynolds was among 176 criminals pardoned in President Clinton's last-minute forgiveness spree. Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lies to the Federal Election Commission. He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.

This is a first in American politics. An ex-Congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a President who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.

An Illinois jury convicted Reynolds in 1995 for having a sexual relationship with Beverly Heard, age 16. They first met in 1992, when Reynolds was driving around Chicago's Morgan Park High School. "I was on my way home," Heard testified. "Mr. Reynolds was in his car, and he stopped his car and gestured for me to come over." Heard said Reynolds offered his business card and began phoning to say how good she would look in the nude. Soon they were having sex.

Heard eventually approached police, who taped phone calls in which Reynolds asked her to photograph the breasts and genitalia of "Theresa," an imaginary 15-year-old girl Heard invented. Reynolds asked Heard to arrange a three-way encounter with "Theresa." When Heard told him "Theresa" was a Catholic school girl, Reynolds replied, "Did I win the Lotto?" Reynolds was convicted of soliciting child pornography, criminal sexual assault, and obstruction of justice for trying to spirit Heard to Tennessee when the scandal broke.

Given his own fall from grace, one might think Jackson would steer clear of Reynolds. But just days after Reynolds' release, Jackson saluted him before 2,500 worshippers at Chicago's Salem Baptist Church. "Mel, when you come out of the fire, the fire separates the metal from the alloy," Jackson declared. "Mel, you'll come out stronger." He then ...