Their reputations for greatness have somehow survived. But it probably helps that they're all long dead and that, with the exception of Jefferson, their dalliances were barely even whispered about during their lifetimes. Jesse Jackson, though, we'll see again soon. The issue is not forgiveness. We'll forgive, certainly.
Moral authority is a precious and perishable thing.
We give it less freely than we once did, because we've been disappointed so much. It's human, yes. Happens to the baker, the banker, the barber, the surgeon. But it is necessarily different when it happens to the preacher, the president, the great man. To accept a higher calling is to accept a higher responsibility.