IT'S TRUE THAT SOME CORRUPT Connecticut politicians remain behind bars, still marked by at least a little public scorn and maybe their own shame. But their time will come.

Just look at former Gov. John Rowland, the now-rehabilitated felon who will take to the pulpit Easter Sunday for the Calvary Chapel of Uncasville, to preach about his “Fall Into Grace.” They're holding the service at the big Palmer Auditorium at Connecticut College, because they expect as many as 1,000 people to attend.

It just goes to show how much we love redemption in America. We love it almost as much as scandal. Shame and scorn are always short-lived.

Consider some examples.

Radio rabble-rouser on the right, Rush Limbaugh, crusader against illegal drugs, was arrested on charges of abusing pain pills. But he stayed on the air. Similarly, television's high priest of conservatism, Bill O'Reilly, shrugged off a nasty and explicit sexual harassment lawsuit that would have embarrassed almost anyone else into retirement.

Radio shock jock on the left, Don Imus, was forced into early retirement when he called Rutgers women basketball players “nappy-headed hos.” But he's on the air again now, too.

Martha Stewart, convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators, was still wearing her home-monitoring ankle bracelet when planning a post-prison comeback that included two new television shows.

In Rhode Island, former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci always appeared to use scandal to fuel his popularity. Despite a 1984 kidnapping and assault conviction, he was re-elected mayor in 1991. Ten years later, he was indicted on 27 bribery and racketeering charges and was sent to federal prison.

But he's out again, back on television and radio, still popular, and will be eligible to run again for mayor in six more years. Who thinks he won't do it?

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island crashed his Mustang into a concrete barrier at 3 in the morning two years ago, telling an officer that he was “late for a vote.” Kennedy, an old hand at rehab, survived the accident and politically survived the arrest. He may still make a Senate run some day. Scandal, after all, never impaired his father's career.

My favorite political rehabilitation was Washington's Mayor Marion Barry, who was caught in an FBI drug sting and sent to prison. Even though a surveillance film showing him smoking a crack pipe ran over and over on television, he succeeded in getting re-elected as mayor.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig is a survivor of sorts, switching from one of wide stance to one with a last stand. In the embarrassing heights of his sex stall scandal, Craig offered to resign, then thought better of it and stayed.

In presidential politics, the Clintons are noteworthy survivors of an impeachment-sized sex scandal, maybe one of the nation's biggest ever. John McCain survived an enormous lobbying scandal.

For all those who this week put Eliot Spitzer down for the count, I'd say think again.

Expect, even, a fall into grace.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

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