Impeachment is back on the table. Leading up to the fall midterms, Democrats studiously shunned talk of removing President Donald Trump from office, knowing that while it might inspire their fervent partisans, it would also do the same for his. But lately the case for impeachment has been made soberly by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt and more pithily by newly elected congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Impeachment enthusiast Tom Steyer just decided not to run for president but to push his pet cause instead.
Talk of impeaching Trump has become so common, in fact, that it's easy to forget just how exotic a constitutional mechanism it has traditionally been. Congress has undertaken impeachment proceedings against only three presidents—Richard Nixon, who resigned; and Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, who were acquitted. Those facts alone should sound a note of caution.
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