JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Casting them as stubborn deadbeats, President Obama sought Thursday to discredit House Republicans in upcoming fiscal fights by painting them as roadblocks to a thriving middle class.
With Obama and Congress approaching all-too-familiar showdowns over spending levels and the nation’s borrowing limit, Obama used a visit to a seaside port in Florida to argue that the nation’s economic agenda should be immune to the partisan backbiting he faulted Republicans for instigating.
In the last of three stops on a two-day tour to reframe his broad economic vision for the nation, Obama pitched the need for enhanced American infrastructure at this port and others across the country — and for better roads, bridges, and power grids. But the president offered no new proposals for accelerating the economy.
Obama warned that if Republicans continue with their ‘‘my way or the highway attitude,’’ dire consequences could await Americans.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, questioned the point of Obama’s big push in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday. ‘‘At some point, campaign season has to end and the working-with-others season has to begin,’’ McConnell said. ‘‘At some point, you have to stop promising an ‘ocean of tomorrows’ and start actually working with the representatives of the people.’’
Weiner admits poor behavior continued after resignation
NEW YORK — Anthony D. Weiner, the embattled candidate for mayor of New York City, acknowledged Thursday he had engaged in inappropriate online communications with up to three women since leaving Congress two years ago.
But, he added, “I can’t tell you absolutely what someone else is going to consider inappropriate or not.”
The remarks were his most detailed yet on his actions since he resigned from office in June 2011. Weiner had left many voters with the impression that his lewd behavior had ceased after his resignation, but after another episode became public Tuesday on a blog called The Dirty, he acknowledged his habit of sending messages to young women he met online had continued.
Weiner said he was still seeking professional help for his online behavior, which he didn’t believe was an addiction.
Weiner’s campaign appeared to be under siege Thursday after another report by the blog revealed his post-resignation relationship with a young woman from Indiana.
The blog posted what it said were uncensored photographs of his penis, and said Weiner had sent the pictures to the woman. The images quickly flew across social media sites.
Boehner again criticizes King for remarks on immigration
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner elevated his criticism of fellow Republican Representative Steve King of Iowa on Thursday over King’s suggestion that many immigrants in the country illegally are drug runners, calling the comments ‘‘deeply offensive and wrong.’’
At his weekly news conference, Boehner ramped up his previous criticism of King’s remarks without being asked. The Ohio Republican took the unusual step of calling King out by name, dramatizing the concern among GOP leaders that incendiary comments from the right can tarnish the party’s image even as lawmakers struggle to find a solution to the immigration debate.
King told a conservative news website last week that with respect to immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, ‘‘for every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.’’
The comments began to circulate widely Tuesday, drawing condemnation from Boehner, House majority leader Eric Cantor, other Republicans, and numerous Democrats.
Several hours after Boehner spoke, King defended his remarks and expanded on them.
‘‘There are many, many young people coming across the border unlawfully who are smuggling drugs into the United States,’’ King said on the House floor. ‘‘We must not sacrifice the rule of law on the altar of political expediency.’’