FIRST came shock. Then the titillation and the jokes from the late-night comedians. Now the book deals.

And through it all there has been a curious silence and even expressions of sadness and fealty from those he apparently betrayed. If the tawdry saga that is the Dick Morris affair seems to teach anything about the ways of the influential, it is this: in an age when politicians prattle on about personal responsibility, some people, even when caught, seem to get away.

And in this case, if an as-yet-undisputed article in a supermarket tabloid is to be believed, they're getting away not only with violations of ethics but criminal behavior.

To be sure, Mr. Morris, the former chief political strategist for President Clinton, hasn't gotten off scot-free. He was forced to resign in disgrace after the tabloid Star reported that for a year he had retained Sherry Rowlands as a $200-an-hour call girl, allowing her to listen in on phone conversations with the President and to have advance looks at speeches by Vice President Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton. But beyond making Mr. Morris and Ms. Rowlands the butt of jokes, virtually everyone -- prosecutors, the taxman, feminists, Mr. Clinton -- seems willing to give them a pass.

In an average day, the District of Columbia police make 300 to 500 arrests, on a variety of charges, of men and women engaged in prostitution as either ''johns'' or hookers. Yet a spokesman for the Police Department said it had no plans to bring charges against Mr. Morris over his reported frolics at the Jefferson Hotel, or to launch an investigation into whether such charges were warranted. Under D.C. law, having sex with a prostitute is not illegal; soliciting sex with one is. Unless the transaction is witnessed (generally through the use of policewomen posing as hookers on the street), it's difficult to prove a crime has occurred. So the police don't bother investigating.

Trade Secrets

''As far as we are concerned, he has not committed a crime, other than associating with a prostitute,'' said Sgt. J. C. Stamps, a D.C. police spokesman. ''That's not a crime. It may be a problem ethically, but it's not against the law.''

But the reported actions of Mr. Morris, who has neither confirmed nor denied the Star account, and Ms. Rowlands, who was paid by the tabloid as its primary source, conceivably could have spawned other crimes; it is unclear whether that possibility is being investigated.

It does not appear to be against the law to allow a person outside of government to be privy to private conversations with the President, so long as they don't involve classified information. But it could be a crime if such access is used to get wind of pending governmental action and profit from it -- new regulations on tobacco, say. But legal experts say that making an insider-trading case against either Mr. Morris or Ms. Rowlands would be difficult. For starters, there is no evidence so far that Mr. Clinton and Mr. Morris spoke of such matters or that Ms. Rowlands heard of them if they did.

Then there is the question of whether Ms. Rowlands paid taxes on her income from prostitution. Unless exempted by Federal statute, all income is taxable whether it comes from legal or illegal activity. Therefore, if she did not report her earnings from prostitution (although it would be doubtful she would say that was the source), Ms. Rowlands could end up doing hard time instead of just ''Hard Copy.''

But Sheldon Cohen, a former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said the agency normally did not pursue those kinds of cases unless the amount of money was significant. And the world's oldest profession is a cash business, so if a call girl reports any income, it's difficult to determine whether she underreported it. As a result the I.R.S. usually doesn't investigate. ''If they chased every prostitute on that basis they wouldn't be chasing anybody else,'' Mr. Cohen said.

Aides with the Clinton campaign, which was paying Mr. Morris as a consultant, said a preliminary audit indicated that campaign funds weren't used to pay Ms. Rowlands, thus they do not believe there was any violation of Federal election law.

Legal issues aside, there is still the court of public opinion. And aside from the fulminations of editorial writers and columnists, the reaction of official Washington has been strangely muted. Anger at the betrayal of a President and the demeaning of the White House has been expressed only obliquely.

'Nobody's Asked Us'

Even health officials who have warned of prostitution in an age of AIDS have had nothing to say. ''When this happened, the Surgeon General was on vacation,'' said Damon Thompson, a spokesman for Acting Surgeon General Audrey Manley. ''She just got back in town this week and has had her plate full with other business at hand.''

Feminists vigilant against Republican efforts to restrict their independence on abortion have not seized upon this new, high-profile opportunity to rail at the exploitation of women in prostitution. When asked why the National Organization of Women had not said anything about the Morris affair, a spokeswoman for the organization replied, ''Nobody's asked us.'' Later Patricia Ireland, NOW's president, said in an interview that she felt the group had bigger fish to fry than a dethroned political strategist.

''Yes, we are trying to change the culture,'' she said. ''While he may be a prime example of bad behavior, it is not like he is heading up the Senate Finance Committee, or tricked voters in his last election like Senator $(Bob$) Packwood did. Dick Morris doesn't have that kind of power anymore.''

Rather than publicly speak of how Mr. Morris apparently abused his confidence, Mr. Clinton called the departed political strategist a ''friend'' and the President and First Lady telephoned to console him. ''We're not interested in making this last any longer than it needs to,'' said a White House official. ''We would much rather get people's attention focused back on the economy and the issues.''

And so far, Bob Dole, the Republican Presidential nominee, has not made an issue of Mr. Morris, except for making some glancing asides in speeches about a lack of values in the White House; aides make clear to reporters that these refer to the Morris scandal. Republican strategists have said that Mr. Dole does not want to appear to be exploiting the Morris affair for political gain. But some political observers suggest that the Republicans are wary of making too much of Mr. Morris since he has worked for Republican candidates as well as Democratic ones.

'Deadened' Senses

With so many public notables keeping quiet, wishing the Morris affair would just wither and die, it is little wonder people are cynical. Indeed, some observers say the saddest thing of all regarding the Morris affair is the little interest the public has shown in it.

''I think our senses have been deadened,'' said Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution. ''People have just come to discount all this stuff. There are so many scandals, so much behavior that seems reprehensible. It's so common, so every day, so much in our face on a regular basis that we don't react anymore.''