Step one: Get yourself elected to high political office.
Step two: Find yourself someone to love other than your spouse. And as long as you're at it, you might as well have sex with someone else's spouse. Why not the husband of an employee?
Step three: Get caught. It's no fun, but you can't very well be pilloried without public disclosure. When you do, don't forget to take a potshot at Bill Clinton. After all, you're a more moral adulterer than he was.
Step four: Find the cuckold a cushy job with a lobbying firm that will later solicit your office for politically advantageous access. Theoretically, the objective here is to sweep the whole thing under the carpet, but you can't be a victim unless you get caught. That's why it's okay to be indiscreet.
Step five: Make the mea culpa on television. Make sure to have your wife standing by your side on camera when you come clean. That way, your constituents will know that you're married to the sort of steely self-controlled woman that you don't deserve to live with.
Step six: plead for privacy. Your wife will deserve this, but neither of you as going to get it. Depending on your affiliation, however, Fox News or MSNBC will cut you a pass. The rest of the 24-hour news machine will continue to eat you alive.
Step seven: let more of the ugly truth slip out. You don't have to plan this; you held back some of the naughty stuff. Slowly, it will become public whether you like it or not.
Step Eight: Pray, preferably publicly. Blame big government if you can work it in.
Step Nine: Make statements that a ten year old would be proud of. For example, this is an excellent time to use terms like soul mate. (If you've forgotten what children sound like, watch some C-SPAN.)
Step Ten: Do anything to keep your job while invoking a noble cause - e.g., The Second Amendment or defeating socialism in the form of healthcare reform.
Step Eleven: Refuse to resign. Sure, you've denounced other adulterers, but your case is unique. You're special, not a hypocrite.
Step Twelve: Have a party apparatchik officially proclaim that there's a witch-hunt, and you're the victim. Congratulations.