Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell launched day two of his attacks on Barack Obama on Thursday, calling out the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for saying he was bothered by how fast gas prices have risen.

The slam is part of an ongoing assault by Republicans to pin Democrats for not supporting offshore and increased domestic drilling even though gas prices have risen now to more than $4 a barrel.

“If people are being forced to change their lifestyles, if the price of goods is skyrocketing, that’s apparently all right, according to our friends on the other side. Their presidential nominee even admits it. He says the high price of gas isn’t the problem. The problem, he says, is that prices went up too quickly. If he had his way, he would have raised prices much more slowly," McConnell R-Ky., said.

Obama drew McConnell's notice on Wednesday after he commented about a question of whether Congress was actually working to keep prices from falling.

"I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing. But if we take some steps right now to help people make the adjustment, first of all by putting more money into their pockets, but also by encouraging the market to adapt to these new circumstances more quickly, particularly US automakers, then I think ultimately, we can come out of this stronger and have a more efficient energy policy than we do right now," Obama said Tuesday.

After being harangued for the remark, Obama's spokesman retorted: "Senator McConnell knows exactly what Barack Obama meant: the huge strain caused by high gas prices is made even worse when they climb so quickly. No amount of partisan political attacks will change the fact that George Bush, John McCain, and their congressional allies have repeatedly stood with the oil and gas companies and against American consumers.”

But McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner and others plan to keep on the offensive. In his speech on the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell suggested the interviewer's question may have been spot on.

“It should be abundantly clear by now to anyone who’s paying attention that our friends on the other side have no serious plan for lowering gas prices. As the record suggests, their primary concern is blocking increased production, which has inexorably led to record gas prices.

"As the third largest oil producer in the world, America needs to increase its own domestic supplies in an environmentally responsible way so we’re less reliant on Middle East oil and so our people finally get some relief,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's camp also took the opportunity to pound Obama once more, even though the Obama team has already hounded McCain for reigniting talk of a 33-cent gas tax holiday, first proposed when gas prices were about 45 cents cheaper than they are now.

"Barack Obama's assertion that the only problem with higher gas prices is that they've gone up too fast -- saying he'd prefer a 'gradual' increase instead -- shows how clearly out of touch he is with Americans struggling with record gas prices. At a time when Americans need relief at the pump, Barack Obama's support for higher gas prices and higher energy taxes is just another example of his weak economic judgment," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

We've also seen widespread reports of local law enforcement and police departments having to reassess how they are going to use their vehicles and their fleet, because of the strain that the high cost of gas is placing on their departments. So clearly it's not just working families. It's communities across the country who are struggling up under these high costs, high prices and for Senator Obama to indicate that we'll just have to get used to them is clearly an indication that he is out of touch," added Obama surrogate Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.