From this week's National Journal: (subscription)

• Although Washington has seen plenty of odd-bedfellow coalitions -- habitual antagonists forming temporary alliances of convenience on an issue, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership arguably took the phenomenon to a new level, writes Julie Kosterlitz. For more than two years, six environmental groups and 25 corporations representing divergent interests of their own sat down regularly to negotiate a detailed agreement on how to tackle one of the most complicated public policy issues of the day: cutting carbon pollutants to curtail global warming. Click here for story.
  

• In a look at the upcoming potential battle for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, a team of National Journal reporters write for this week's magazine cover story: "The New York Yankees, the baseball team that Sonia Sotomayor says she adores, was among the first to use the squeeze play to great and showy effect nearly a century ago, occasionally even getting two runs with one well-executed maneuver. Senators shouldn't be surprised, then, that President Obama and his Supreme Court nominee know how to piece together victories." Click here for story.
  

• From the K Street Corridor: Intel boosted its spending on Washington lobbying in the weeks before the European Union fined the technology giant $1.4 billion for violating antitrust rules; As the health care debate gets serious and Democrats hunt for revenue to pay for reforms, a coalition of 100 business groups has deployed its local associates during the congressional recess to lobby lawmakers to keep a favorite tax provision-- "last in, first out" or LIFO.