Pelosi’s shift

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) needed to shift the debate on gas prices, and that’s what she did on Larry King’s show Monday night.

Talking about Republicans, Pelosi said, “They have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas. We can do that. We can have a vote on that.”

The narrative on gas prices, up until that comment, was, “Pelosi blocks drilling votes.”

That could be presented as running counter to Pelosi’s 2006 promise to restore minority-party rights in the House, and it also has troubled some politically vulnerable Democrats.

Before Pelosi’s remarks to King, Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) had boldly predicted that there would be a floor vote in September on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Altmire is in a challenging reelection race and that prediction, if wrong, could have been used against him this fall. It won’t be.

But don’t think that Pelosi is waving the white flag on her flagship issue of energy. She simply had to give her members some political cover.

The Speaker believes House Democrats can significantly expand their majority this fall. Continuing to block an OCS drilling vote would be akin to letting some of her vulnerable members walk the plank.

Pelosi’s plan is to put OCS language in a large energy package. The larger the package, the tougher it will be to get through the Senate.

House Republican leadership, which has regained a spring in its step after three devastating special-election losses earlier this year, predictably rejected Pelosi’s new plan.

In many ways, the parties don’t want a 2008 solution to energy prices. Republicans want to use gas prices as a political weapon and Democrats want to pass a solution when (they hope) it can be signed by a newly sworn-in President Barack Obama.

Obama, meanwhile, recently embraced the Senate “Gang of 10” energy plan, which includes OCS drilling. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been calling for OCS drilling for the past couple months, has not yet embraced the Gang of 10 deal because he wants to review its legislative language.

Obama can now somewhat fend off McCain’s arrows because he has publicly said he is interested in striking a deal. For weeks, Pelosi had indicated no desire to compromise. Now, the Speaker can say she wants to pass a bipartisan bill, knowing that the chances of it are slim this year.

Pelosi was under intense pressure to blink. She did, but with a wink, too, and a nod to the anti-drilling members of her caucus.