Impeachment may not remove an official but even using the word leaves a mark

Impeachment is a crusty old word from a distant century. It is uncommon in present day English usage.

But impeachment still connotes a constitutional process with potentially historic consequences. Over the past half-century, at roughly 20-year intervals, efforts to impeach three U.S. presidents have imprinted impeachment as a term and a process on the collective consciousness of the nation.

One of those three presidents, Richard Nixon, resigned on the verge of impeachment in 1974. The others, Bill Clinton (1998-99) and Donald Trump (2019-20 and 2021) were impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate, which failed to muster the two-thirds majority required to convict.

Nonetheless, the playing out of the drama surrounding Clinton and Trump has kept the idea of impeachment branding-iron