need to develop robust e-mail script

I need to develop a robust e-mail script.

To ensure durability, I have a database table with two fields: (1) email address and (2) email body. New rows are appended to continually.

I want to develop a perl script to read the table and send off the e-mails, then delete the entries that have been successfully mailed. The script will be invoked on a regular basis.

This is simple enough at face value. However, I need to handle situations like a clogged or down smtp server.  I have no experience with sendmail.

Also, can I benefit from socket-level e-mailing rather than sendmail, given that I have alot of mail to send at once?

If you have any insight and/or info on articles or scripts out there, please respond. I have just spent two hours searching and have not found anything.

Thanks, Stuart