Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu publicly criticizing BHO's indifference to the ecological diaster taking place in the Gulf region, and predicts he will pay a price for his inattention to the crisis.

“The president has not been as visible as he should have been on this, and he’s going to pay a political price for it, unfortunately,” Landrieu told POLITICO. “But he’s going down tomorrow, he’s made some good announcements today, and if he personally steps up his activity, I think that would be very helpful.”

Landrieu’s comments came as Obama spoke to reporters in the East Room of the White House, defending his administration’s response to the ecological disaster. The president plans to head to the Gulf to inspect the oil spill on Friday.

“Those who think that we were either slow in our responses or lacked urgency don’t know the facts,” Obama said Thursday. “This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred.”