Democrats sought answers from other top Republicans Friday on whether they agree with Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul that criticism of BP is "un-American."

Members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) took to Twitter to ask Republican leaders and candidates (or at least their official accounts) whether they "agree with Rand Paul that the President is being too hard on BP?"

DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan tweeted, for example:

@DavidVitter do you agree with Rand Paul that the President is being too hard on BP? http://bit.ly/drAAQi

While Republicans are unlikely to respond to the online interrogations, the line of question reflects a growing sense that Paul, who found himself in hot water on Wednesday, too, for suggesting that civil rights laws might have encroached too much on private business, is a growing liability for the GOP.

The Senate delegations of Maryland and New Jersey are putting new pressure on President Barack Obama to abandon the sale of oil-and-gas leases off Virginia’s coast, alleging it would interfere with Navy training.

“We are writing to urge you to abandon plans for any offshore oil and gas development within proposed Virginia Lease Sale 220 because, not only would it pose enormous environmental and economic risks to our states, but it would also jeopardize our military readiness in a time of war,” states a letter Thursday to Obama from Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin (Md.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.).

The administration recently suspended planning for the lease sale — slated for the 2011-2012 time frame — as it reviews increased safeguards needed following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky – who is on the defensive over his views on civil rights – believes the tenor of White House pressure on oil giant BP is "un-American." My colleague Jordan Fabian has the details over in our Blog Briefing Room.

The president used a Rose Garden ceremony Friday to highlight new fuel efficiency standards and call for climate change legislation.

President Barack Obama will announce plans Friday to improve car and truck mileage and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The White House to expand auto mileage rules and include big trucks

President Barack Obama on Friday will sign a Presidential Memorandum “outlining the next steps in his vision for cleaner, more efficient vehicles,” the White House said Thursday evening.

The order is expected to require further boosts in car and light truck mileage after the 2016 model year, when a 35.5 miles-per-gallon average will be in effect, the Associated Press reports.

The 2012-2016 standards were finalized earlier this year under a first-time joint rulemaking between the Transportation Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that addresses both efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama is also “asking federal agencies to extend a national fuel-efficiency program to big rig and work trucks for the first time, beginning in 2014,” AP reports.

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on Thursday denied placing profits above safety as he faced his first Capitol Hill hearing since last month’s explosion at the coal giant’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia that killed 29 workers.

Top Obama administration officials said Thursday that BP is failing to keep the government and public informed about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and ordered the company to quickly publish environmental monitoring data and other information.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in a letter Thursday to BP CEO Tony Hayward, say BP transparency efforts have “fallen short in both their scope and effectiveness.”

“In order to meet BP’s responsibilities and to fulfill this obligation, BP must make publicly available any data and other information related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that you have collected, or that will be collected in the future,” the letter adds.

The chief safety regulator over coal mines said there was “no doubt” in his mind the Upper Big Branch mine where 29 workers died last month was not operated safely.

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health (MSHA) Joseph Main was responding to a claim included in written testimony from Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship that federal inspectors reported the mine was in “good condition” just days before the April 5 blast, the deadliest in four decades.

Massey owns the Upper Big Branch mine.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) had asked Main to respond to Blankenship’s testimony during the first of two witness panels testifying before the Senate Appropriations labor subcommittee.