It is more useful to consider the reasons for which an official can be impeached than to attempt to catalog a list of specific impeachable offenses. A reconsideration of the principles governing impeachments and the historical record of federal impeachments indicates that the impeachment of President Bill Clinton was consistent with the constitutional standard of "high crimes." Impeachments are justified in order to remove an immediate danger to the republic, or in order to educate citizens and officials of the appropriate standards of public conduct and to deter future bad conduct by government officials. Such bad conduct includes direct abuses of public office and basic inconsistencies between the actions of the officeholder and the expectations of the office.