For Republican members of the 118th Congress, it’s a good thing they can’t be expelled for legislative malpractice. If so, they’d all be out of a job. And rightfully so.

Last week’s vote to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden is one of the most irresponsible actions taken in the history of Congress. It is breathtakingly baseless, cynical and malicious.

As written, the impeachment clause has always been problematic. Although the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power to impeach a president, they never spelled out exactly what he could be impeached for, other than the vaguely-defined “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Then-Rep. Gerald Ford (R-Mich.) famously remarked that “an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

But nobody ever thought Congress would impeach a president for no reason at all — until now. And it’s important to understand why House Republicans are doing so. Not because they have any proof that Biden has committed “high crime or misdemeanors” as president. In fact, everything they accuse him of — again, without evidence — occurred when he was vice president.

Republicans are on the impeachment warpath against Biden for only two reasons, both driven by Donald Trump. The first reason is pure revenge. Their first rationale for impeachment goes no deeper than this: Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice (for good reason), so now that they’re in power they’re going to impeach Joe Biden, whether he did anything wrong on not — just to make Donald Trump happy and give Democrats a taste of their own medicine.

The second reason is to create a diversion. With Trump facing 91 felony charges in four courts, his legal battles are bound to dominate political news coverage in 2024 — unless Republicans can successfully put up a smoke screen. Their second rationale for impeachment is just as shallow. Look, they can now cry, Donald Trump’s not the only one charged with wrongdoing. So is Joe Biden. It goes with the job.