What a refreshing change. Ignore the title – as Martin Knight notes in comments here, the WSJ editorial board [I have had it pointed out to me that I meant the “news room:” oops, I did, and my bad] is usually in the tank for the Democrats – in favor of the meat of the article:

The House late Tuesday passed by a 236-189 vote a bill backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) that would allow drilling in waters 50 miles from the shore along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts as long as coastal states agree — and beyond 100 miles regardless of what states want. The proposal represents a concession by Rep. Pelosi to the political success of Republican calls for more drilling.

But in contrast to proposals backed by Republicans and some moderate Senate Democrats, the bill approved in the House Tuesday wouldn’t share any royalties gained from increased offshore oil drilling with coastal states.

Depriving states of a share of royalty revenue would eliminate a critical incentive for them to allow drilling off their coasts, Republicans say.

The White House announced late Tuesday that Mr. Bush’s senior advisors would recommend he veto the House measure, should it reach his desk. The White House cited the royalty issue among its objections.

The Senate appears unlikely to pass a drilling proposal, based on interviews with lawmakers in recent days.

Bolding mine, and via AoSHQ. This is tea-leaf reading, of course: but there’s some evidence here that the House bill as currently established is not going to be acceptable to the GOP members of the Gang of Whatever The Number Is Today. Even if there is, there certainly isn’t enough support in the House to overrule a veto – and what’s one more load of rocks to throw on this President’s chest? In other words, I’m predicting either one of those patented 5X-4X cloture votes, or else a Presidential nixing; either way, the Democrats will scream, point fingers, and snarl for the cameras… then cave on offshore drilling, because the clock is running and the October deadline looms.

Guess that they should have settled this before the August break, huh?