The True Name Theory Of Legislation

AKA the Ezra Klein Rule: 

You can't pass what you can't say.

More specifically:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid played dumb last week when a reporter asked him if the energy and climate bill headed to the floor would come with a “cap” on greenhouse gas emissions.

“I don’t use that,” the Nevada Democrat replied. “Those words are not in my vocabulary. We’re going to work on pollution.”

If you can't say cap and trade, no cap and trade bill will pass.  So, as Ezra says, there will be no cap and trade bill.  If you're searching for a new phrase to call the bill, your influence over the bill is dead.  That works both ways (see Republicans trying to call heath care reform "Obamacare" and the financial regulation bill "The Permanent Bailout Authority") but if Dems are floundering for a new thing to call Cap and Trade, well that's dead too.

Harry Dresden said it best:  There's power in something's true name.