Empty Exercises

Empty exercises is a new blog.  It is about the wasted effort by Congressmen trying to appear like they are working, however they are really wasting everyone's time. 
An example of an Empty Exercise:  When Bill Clinton was impeached.  Usually when people want to win something, they look at the way to win.  When they see they can't win, they absolutely can't win, they will stop the process.  This is what happened with Clinton's impeachment.  The Republicans in the House of Representatives had to figure out a way to discredit President Clinton, however, things were going so well for Clinton, he was about ready to present the next President with a budget surplus, a coux for Clinton, a loss for the Republicans.  When the President had an affair, oral sex, this set the agenda for the Republicans.  They wanted, and did, splatter the entire affair, how Clinton "lied" and they wanted him impeached.  They looked at the work set before them, they had the votes in the House of Representatives , purely on a partisan vote, however they had no where near the votes in the Senate.  The Republicans went ahead with the impeachment (which is simply an indictment--or statement of charges, it is not a conviction, simply stated it is similar to a Grand Jury indictment in the court system.)  When the case cleared the House of Representatives, President Clinton became the second President in USA history to be impeached and brought to the Senate for trial.  In this trial, the Senate members are the Jury and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the Judge.  Evidentuary materials and hearings are conducted in a similar manner as any court procedure.  A two-thirds vote of the Senate is necessary for a "conviction".  Once convicted, the person simply loses his title-position.  Sentence is pronounced by the Chief Justice.
This takes a great deal of time, costs a great deal of money and WASTES A GREAT DEAL OF TIME. 
In this case, the American people received nothing from the Congress in the form of the discussion and passage of much needed legislation, what they did receive was political parties wasting the taxpayers money for political posturing.  It showed the people that they had the power to do something like this, however, it showed they did not care about the people, only themselves.  It was an EMPTY EXERCISE!
Their are plenty of examples of these kind of exercises.  If you are aware of any of these, write background, date/time, people/events involved, outcome , if accepted for publication, you will be given credit for the exercise.