The headline has been written countless times, but this time it is true: carbon cap-and-trade of any sort will not come out of this Congress—and perhaps it never will. Instead of comprehensive economy-wide carbon cap that Senator John Kerry had urged—and that the House had already passed a year ago—or even the compromise utility-only cap bill that had been suggested as an alternative, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he would move forward next week on a bill that only deals with the BP oil spill and a few other low-profile energy policies.

Maximiliano Cortázar, head of the Mexican presidential communications office, announced July 16 that he will step down to become communications secretary for the ruling National Action Party (PAN). Cortázar’s appointment aims to strengthen the PAN ahead of next year’s gubernatorial races, as well as to prepare the party for the 2012 presidential race. In an exclusive AS/COA interview, the Wilson Center’s Andrew Selee talks about Mexico’s recent cabinet shuffle.

University of Toronto Political Science Professor Stephen Clarkson, who has written extensively about the Liberal Party, including the book Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics, said summer barbecue tours of this sort have been helpful to opposition leaders in the past, partly because federal politicians typically get an easier ride with local media than with the Parliamentary Press Gallery. http://www.hilltimes.com/page/view/unplugged-07-19-2010

Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, joined AS/COA for a teleconference covering the July 4 Mexican gubernatorial elections. Selee gave an overview of how the three major political parties—the Institutional Revoulutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)—fared at the ballot box. In a dialogue with callers, he discussed prospects for future PAN-PRD political alliances and a whether the PRI is, in fact, seeing a resurgence. http://www.as-coa.org/article.php?id=2519  

The following are Ted Gayer’s comments at a conference hosted by the Chamber of Commerce Foundation on July 8, 2010 on “Contemporary Conservatism and Government Regulation,” in response to a paper presented by Christopher DeMuth of the American Enterprise Institute. DeMuth's paper analyzes how conservatives have opposed the growth of government regulation in principle, but how they have accommodated that growth in practice. http://www.brookings.edu/speeches/2010/0708_conservatism_growth_gayer.aspx

Annual Meeting of the Prairie Political Science Association