Even Impeachment Has to Follow the Rules

Amid the grandstanding in the House of Representatives, one key point can sometimes get lost: While impeachment is certainly a political process, it is not a purely political one. The judgments that Congress makes throughout the process are substantially but not entirely constrained by legal standards set out in the Constitution. If impeachment were a purely political process, Congress could legitimately impeach and remove a president from office for any reason or no reason at all.