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NOT long ago in this space, we brought you "Late Show" host David Letterman's recent comments on the trial of O.J. Simpson. In the interest of equal time, we thought it would be only fair to reprint some of "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno's commentary on "the trial of the century":"They dismissed [a] 63-year-old female juror because she had the same arthritis doctor as O.J., and also because she was shoving and fighting with the other jurors. That's what they said today in the paper. Now think about this; this guy must be a great arthritis doctor . . . ""I guess [defense attorney Robert]

Washington -- IT IS terrible, yes, simply dreadful, that Americans are ignoring the Really Important Issues in their hell-bent obsession with the O.J. Simpson case.You hear that complaint often in Washington, the Imperial City that preens itself as the heart of the universe. After all, when presidents pontificate or senators harrumph, they rule the network news. As if by divine right, television is their private playpen.Yet, these Masters of the Tube have been nuked into oblivion by the Simpson melodrama.

Here's a question for you, and please think about it seriously. It's this: How low are you willing to go?I ask because I'm having doubts about myself and my own standards. And I'm a little worried about you, too.First, let's define our terms.As a working definition of low, try John Wayne Bobbitt's new show-all porno movie called, yes, "John Wayne Bobbitt Uncut." That's quite low. (By the way, Entertainment Weekly says in its review that the, um, well, you-know, actually works. Talk about your happy endings.

"I Want to Tell You," O.J. Simpson titled his book and, indeed, it's what he wants to tell you, not necessarily what you want to know.Arriving in stores yesterday, Mr. Simpson's book comes as his trial in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman concludes an opening week of heated arguments and stuttering delays.The 208-page book, which retails for $17.95, won't stop any presses with shocking confessions or revealing insights by the man whose case has riveted the nation, or at least its media.

LEGAL HISTORY THE TRIAL: A HISTORY, FROM SOCRATES TO O.J. SIMPSON By Sadakat Kadri. Random House. 480 pages. In 1510, priests in Autun, France, learning that rats were destroying the barley crop, ordered all rats to appear in court. But despite numerous legal proclamations, no rats showed up. Nevertheless, the bishop appointed a brilliant young lawyer, Bartholomew Chassenee, to represent the rats, and Chassenee successfully argued that since the rats were so numerous, it was impossible that they had all received legal notice.

'OJenre" books were created by circumstances a little less than a year ago. By now the genre has illuminated and cracked open the American criminal justice and jury system and has exposed the zeitgeist of America. It is not pretty. This trial has become a monument for where we stand in 1995 in America.The charges against Simpson involve sex, abuse, murder. His trial is about race, celebrity, greed, money, avarice, and opportunism. Ironically, the voice that has been lost in all the millions of pages of print bought and sold, written and edited, is that of one man - O.J. Simpson.

THE FBI IS supposedly the nation's top law enforcement agency. The truth is, it's overrated, ineffective and incompetent. How else could we explain why that dangerous, dreaded and elusive criminal, Someone Else, is not at the top of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List? We have no firm description of Else. We know he's male. But his address, whereabouts and even his origins are unknown. What we do know is that on the night of Dec. 9, 1981, Else was in Philadelphia, where he gunned down and killed Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Who was not riveted last Friday by the spectacle of the lone white Ford Bronco with fugitive celebrity O.J. Simpson inside wending its way along the California interstate followed by a line of police cars and flanked by throngs of motorists who had gotten out of their cars to cheer the procession on?Television brought us a helicopter-eye view of the slow-motion chase and framed it in layer upon layer of familiar narrative: It was a breaking news story, a sports brief, a talk show and a true-life crime drama all rolled into one. Most people agreed they had never seen anything quite like it.The effect was hypnotic but also disconcerting, painful and ambiguous: Was this an athletic event, an "Oprah"-like group therapy session or a real-life episode of "C.O.

I'd like to believe that the crowds yelling ''Go, O.J., Go,'' on the highway overpass and around the Brentwood mansion were just urging him to live. Not to escape.I'd like to believe that the California man who said ''O.J. is still a hero around here,'' was echoing the American presumption of innocence. Not the belief that O.J. could be a hero and a murderer.I'd like to believe that all the colleagues and friends who -- to a man -- found this double-murder charge ''unbelievable'' meant that as an expression of their shock.

Al "Blanco" Weiss of Glen Burnie had a point to make about the suspect in the Ennis Cosby slaying, and sent in his view via postcard."In the interest of racial harmony, justice and fair play, I think that a white L.A. jury should find the white Russian killer of Ennis Cosby not guilty. O.J. would then be vindicated. Have a good day."Do I detect a bit of cynicism in your remarks, Blanco me boy? A touch of sarcasm, perhaps? You certainly didn't intend this to be a measured, reasoned, logical response to that ever-touchy subject of the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial, did you?