The "Doktor" is Out

A friend pointed me to this story from Germany about a public official in a scandal over his plagiarized doctoral dissertation. I encourage everyone to read the quite well-written, entertaining article, but here's a snippet from it:
"The trouble started last month when this country’s most popular cabinet minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a handsome, media-savvy, conspicuously pomaded 39-year-old baron widely presumed to be a leading candidate to succeed Angela Merkel someday as chancellor, tried to brush off charges that he had plagiarized parts of his 2006 thesis."
The article makes a point of distinguishing between a PhD in the U.S. and one in Germany, suggesting that having a PhD in the U.S. is almost "embarrassing," whereas in Germany it makes someone both qualified for specific jobs and worthy of several honorifics. Perhaps because of the doctoral degree's caché in Germany, it is "literally a crime" to have one's dissertation written by someone else ("farming" it out), and while the man in question does not admit to doing that, he appears to have stolen parts of his thesis and had "help" writing many others.

Guttenberg has stepped down from his government position after widespread uproar, and the event is being compared to former President Clinton's impeachment trial. Is this an apt comparison? I'm almost more likely to compare the story to that of James Frey and his fake memoir, but the repercussions for Frey were much less serious. There are few doctors in high political positions (other than a few M.D.s), and it seems unlikely that a senator would quit office over an uncited or mis-attributed paper. Are we more willing to forgive liars and plagiarists in this country? Do we consider academic integrity separate from personal integrity here?