Gene Healy on Unauthorized Wars and Impeachment

Is unauthorized war-making an impeachable offense? Certainly. As Hamilton explains in "The Federalist," the impeachment power serves as "an essential check in the hands of that body upon encroachments of the executive," aimed at "those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust." The impeachment power is there for a reason, writes Gene Healy, and unauthorized war is one of them.