David Weldon: “several people on the minority side have risen today and quoted the scripture, ``Judge not, that you not be judged.''…”

“several people on the minority side have risen today and quoted the scripture, ``Judge not, that you not be judged.'' Careful reading of this scripture makes it quite clear that the message is not that we should never judge or exercise judgment. Most scholars interpret this verse of scripture to mean that we should not condemn others for their faults and that we should forgive those who offend us. It has never been proposed by any reasonable person that this verse of scripture asserts that we are to let criminals go free or that our laws should not be upheld. Bill Clinton is not being judged by the Members here as much as he is being judged by the law itself. The preamble to the Constitution tells us that the Constitution was created for, among other reasons, to establish justice. To blithely forgive or ignore these offenses is to make a mockery of justice. Our laws state that to lie under oath, to encourage others to provide false testimony or to conspire to conceal evidence is a felony punishable by imprisonment. Indeed, the committee took testimony from two individuals who lied about sex before a grand jury. One received house arrest, the other actually went to jail. Every year in America, people go to jail for committing perjury. The Democrats wrote the statute creating the office of the Independent Counsel and Janet Reno authorized the expansion of the investigation into the matters before us.”