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Obama challenges Boehner, McConnell on home turf
In the very short term, Obama’s visit was making traffic on the overloaded 1963 bridge worse, not better. Ohio and Kentucky transportation officials warned motorists to expect long delays around the time of the president’s appearance Thursday afternoon because of lane closures and a ramp shutdown. Boehner joked that stopping bridge traffic won’t win any votes.
Both Boehner and McConnell declined a White House invitation to attend Thursday’s event, because Congress is in session. Obama did travel on Air Force One with Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has an alternative proposal for bridge and road projects.
“I know these men care about their states. And I can’t imagine that the speaker wants to represent a state where nearly one in four bridges is classified as substandard. I know that when Sen. McConnell visited the closed bridge in Kentucky, he said that ‘roads and bridges are not partisan in Washington,'” Obama said.
“Well, if that’s the case, then there’s no reason for Republicans in Congress to stand in the way of more construction projects. There’s no reason to stand in the way of more jobs.”
Nowhere to be found in Obama’s speech was his admonition of late for members of Congress to put “country before party.” Instead, he went after the leaders of Congress by party. With public opinion polls show only about one person in four approves of Obama’s economic performance, he’s trying to put his differences with the GOP into sharper focus.
Carney acknowledged the trip, Obama’s second to Ohio in two weeks, was designed to heap pressure on Boehner and McConnell to rally behind his jobs plan.
“We have never suggested that ground would be broken on this project immediately,” Carney said on Air Force One en route to Ohio. “We’re very transparent about why we’re going to this bridge. We’re going to this bridge because it spans the river that divides two states that are represented by the speaker of the House and the Senate minority leader.”
But the White House wasn’t so transparent when it announced Obama’s trip last week.
Carney, at that time, was asked directly whether it was chosen because of the connection to Boehner’s and McConnell’s states, and he did not emphasize the political connection nearly so much.
“The bridge is where it is, OK?” Carney said at the time. “We go places that are reasonably easy to reach, that can accept the presidential aircraft and all the things that come along with presidential travel.”
Copyright 2011, The Associated Press.
