The issue was not to have cheated on his wife, but to have lied on oath to Congress. In Britain and America, false statements in Parliament/Congress are among the most serious crimes in the calendar. Clinton, in fact, got off easy, just because it was widely felt that his was mostly a private misdemeanour, but - for instance - it was a false statement to Parliament - not, as it is generally said, that he had an affair with the Soviet attache's girlfriend - that doomed John Profumo.