Michael -
I am genuinely concerned regarding the negative effect allowing a President to get away with perjury will have on our country. The rule of law should be protected and cherished in a Democracy. I can't remember a time when it's been so calously tossed aside in favor of political expediency.
A couple of points.
First, it is not at all clear whether the President will be allowed to "get away with perjury." For two reasons:
1) The impeachment process has just begun. We can't say for sure how it will proceed, although at this point it does indeed look as if it may not get through the House, let alone the Senate.
2) It is not at all clear that the President (once we get to the Senate trial stage -- if we ever do) will be found guilty of perjury. All the preliminary stages of the impeachment process (grand jury, Judiciary Committee hearings, House vote) have been, are, and will be concerned only with deciding whether an indictment is called for or not; that is, the prosecution makes its case here. Not until the trial stage, will the President have the opportunity to make his case.
Perjury is a legal offense, unlike lying, which is an ethical or moral offense. Therefore, deciding whether someone is guilty of perjury often rests on legal technicalities. Hence the President's case may be stronger than you think it is. I discussed this briefly in a post last month, to which I will refer you:
Message 6138165
Now, to a different question. Should we proceed with this impeachment process now, whatever the outcome is likely to be? I personally am of two minds on the question. (Fortunately, the decision on whether to proceed does not rest with me!)
1) On the one hand, if the impeachment process is cut short, questions like yours (was the President allowed to get away with perjury, in the interests of political expediency; is the President to be considered "above the law", etc.) will never be laid to rest.
2) On the other hand, the impeachment process should also be looked at in the over-all context in which it is occurring. When I do that, I can see the argument for backing off. Some of the points in that argument (IMO) are neatly summarized in the second and final paragraphs of the following post (from a completely different thread):
Message 6511541
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