COBURN TO CUT SENATE TERM SHORT – Obama to call for NSA phone collection overhaul – CONGRESS OKs $1T OMNIBUS -- Weinstein, Streep to take aim at NRA in "Senator"s Wife"

By Scott Wong (swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)

COBURN TO CUT SENATE TERM SHORT – Alexander Burns and Burgess Everett report for the hometown paper: “Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn confirmed Thursday night that he will not serve out his full Senate term and intends to step down after 2014 because of deepening health problems. In a statement, Coburn acknowledged that he is battling a serious recurrence of cancer and said he would continue to fight for his priorities during the remainder of his time in office. ‘Carolyn and I have been touched by the encouragement we’ve received from people across the state regarding my latest battle against cancer. But this decision isn’t about my health, my prognosis or even my hopes and desires,’ Coburn said. ‘As a citizen, I am now convinced that I can best serve my own children and grandchildren by shifting my focus elsewhere.’ …

– “The 65-year-old physician’s decision to resign marks a shift in his plans: In an interview earlier this month, he said he believed he was ‘plenty healthy enough to serve out my term,’ but acknowledged that circumstances could change. … Coburn’s departure from the Senate will cut short a nine-year career in the chamber and a longer tenure in Congress that dates back to the 1994 Republican revolution. An obstetrician by training, Coburn served six years in the House — often clashing with his GOP colleagues as well as Democrats and participating in attempt to depose then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich — before standing by a pledge to step down after three terms. …

– “Coburn has fought cancer on and off for years: In addition to the recurrence of prostate cancer that he announced in November, Coburn has also grappled with melanoma and colon cancer. He had brain surgery about six years ago as a result of a benign brain tumor. As of last week, he was facing the prospect of serious surgery that would require doctors to enter through the rib cage – a procedure serious enough that Coburn had already begun to discuss the possible ramifications for his Senate career with close family and friends.” http://politi.co/1j5GJ8P

The Oklahoman, A1 1-col lead: “COBURN PLANS TO RESIGN EARLY,” By Chris Casteel: “…Coburn’s decision could set off a major scramble among Republicans hoping to replace him. U.S. Reps. Tom Cole, R-Moore; James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City; and Jim Bridenstine, R-Tulsa; will likely consider the race, along with Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Coburn timed his resignation so his replacement could be elected during the regular ballot process this year. It will be a very compressed time frame for a statewide race, particularly for those who don’t have statewide name recognition.” http://bit.ly/1dBhGLi PDF front page: http://bit.ly/1i57o84

– REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL issued this statement: “Tom Coburn is without question one of the most intelligent, principled, and decent men in modern Senate history and a lasting credit to his beloved Oklahoma. … With his nearly 20 years of service in the House and later in the Senate, Tom has set a moral example for lawmakers at every level of government through his integrity, grit, and fearlessness in taking on problems others find either too difficult or too unglamorous.”

– PRESIDENT OBAMA, writing last year for TIME’s 100 most influential people: “The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom representing them in Washington — someone who speaks his mind, sticks to his principles and is committed to the people he was elected to serve.” The two developed an unlikely friendship when Obama was serving in the Senate:  http://ti.me/1b7Tzhs

PROGRAMMING NOTE – Huddle will be off on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Have a great long weekend. We’ll see you back here on Tuesday.

LAWMAKERS PITCH BILL TO REVIVE VOTING RIGHTS ACT – Mike Lillis writes for The Hill: “A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday that would restore the voting protections shot down by the Supreme Court last year. Sponsored by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the proposal attempts to ensure voters’ rights by requiring certain regions with a recent history of racial discrimination to secure federal approval before changing their election rules. The bill would reduce the number of states requiring federal pre-clearance from nine to four, leaving Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia still covered under that provision of the old law.” http://bit.ly/1gUK89j

OBAMA TO CALL FOR OVERHAUL OF NSA’S PHONE-DATA COLLECTION PROGRAM – Mark Landler reports for the New York Times: “President Obama will lay out plans on Friday morning to pull back the government’s wide net of surveillance at home and abroad, in a speech that administration officials say will stake out a middle ground between the far-reaching proposals of his own advisers and the concerns of the nation’s intelligence agencies. Mr. Obama is expected to outline plans to put more limits on the bulk collection of telephone calls; tighten privacy safeguards for foreigners, particularly heads of state; and propose a new public advocate to represent privacy concerns at a secret intelligence court. …  But he will stop short of turning over the storage of phone data to a consortium of telecommunications companies, according to officials …” http://nyti.ms/1dBjpAm

– OBAMA delivers his remarks at 11 a.m. at the Justice Department.

THE ROGERS REPORT: CONGRESS OKs $ 1.1T SPENDING BILL – “A landmark $ 1.1 trillion spending bill cleared Congress Thursday evening after conservative resistance collapsed in the Senate and tea party favorite Ted Cruz dropped his insistence on a vote on funding for President Barack Obama’s health care plan,” David Rogers reports. “On back-to-back 72-26 roll calls, senators voted to cut off debate and then quickly adopted the bill, which keeps the government funded through September. Seventeen Republicans backed passage, but as with the December budget accord, a majority did not. The divisions show again how much the Senate –even more than the House—has become a partisan battleground. Once again Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opted to be a “nay” despite the overwhelming support of House Republicans for the measure.

– “The giant package, which Obama has pledged to sign, is very much a product of that same budget agreement last month. But if December set the limits on spending, this bill now spells out where the dollars will go. And as such, it sets a new template for appropriations for the remainder of the president’s second term.” http://politi.co/1dqCvq7

– A WOMAN, Barbara Mikulski, once again was at the center of this major legislative deal. On A1 of the Washington Post, Ed O’Keefe takes another look at women’s growing influence on Capitol Hill: http://wapo.st/1ac8NaF

WEINSTEIN, STREEP TO TARGET NRA IN ‘THE SENATOR’S WIFE’ – Greg Gilman reports for TheWrap: “Harvey Weinstein promised that an upcoming film he’s making, starring Meryl Streep, will make the National Rifle Association ‘wish they weren’t alive’ during an interview with Howard Stern earlier this week, and now it has a title. A Weinstein Co. spokeswoman told TheWrap on Thursday that the film will be called ‘The Senator’s Wife.’ ‘I think the NRA is a disaster area. I shouldn’t say this, but I’ll tell it to you, Howard. I’m going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we’re going to take this head-on,’ Weinstein told Stern on Wednesday. ‘And they’re going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.’ Weinstein described the film as a ‘big movie like a ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’’ which he hopes will make audiences think: ‘Gun stocks — I don’t want to be involved in that stuff. It’s going to be like crash and burn.’” http://bit.ly/1dB5vwk

– SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TEXAS) fired back at Weinstein, calling the studio head a hypocrite for using violence in his own films. “Citing Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film ‘Kill Bill’ — which Weinstein produced — the Texas senator said the sword fight at the end of the movie is ‘one of the most epically violent scenes.’” POLITICO’s Lucy McCalmont: http://politi.co/1j7Lper

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, JAN. 17, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your-play-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @BreitbartNews and @repcorygardner.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – Both the House and Senate have adjourned through next week for the January recess. They return the week of Jan. 27.

AROUND THE HILL – Rep. Frank Wolf speaks on the Omnibus Appropriations bill at 1 p.m. in HVC Studio A.

FEINSTEIN DEFENDS HILLARY ON BENGHAZI – Ginger Gibson writes for POLITICO: “Sen. Dianne Feinstein is strongly defending former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from criticism in the wake of a Senate report that condemned the State Department for not averting a preventable attack on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. ‘I want the record to be clear: I condemn any effort to use this report for political purposes,’ said Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. She was referring to remarks from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on the Senate floor on Thursday that were critical of the role Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, for not doing enough to prevent the attack.” http://politi.co/1eWFxSy

GATES, REID SQUABBLE OVER NEW BOOK – POLITICO’s Philip Ewing has the story: “Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired back at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday night, quipping that ‘it’s common practice on the Hill to vote on bills you haven’t read, and it’s perfectly clear Sen. Reid has not read the book.’ Reid faulted Gates’s book in an interview with The Associated Press earlier in the day, charging Gates had denigrated him, Vice President Joe Biden and others ‘just to make a buck.’ But Gates said he plans to donate most of what he makes to charities that work with wounded troops, and encouraged Reid and others to actually read his new memoir.” http://politi.co/1av7huA

FRIST’S MISERABLE FLIGHT – Michael Cass writes for The Tennessean: “Apparently being a multimillionaire former Senate majority leader doesn’t guarantee smooth access to the sky. Bill Frist, the former U.S. senator from Tennessee, went on a Twitter rant against United Airlines this afternoon, complaining that he was bumped from a first-class seat and then seated next to a very noisy bathroom.

Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist: United Air @United miserable service again. SanFran sold me and confirmed a seat then took it away: Flt 1486 today

@bfrist: I can confirm that the toilets on this @united flight work! My seat vibrates with each passenger’s visit!

@bfrist: I also appreciate what @united is doing to keep the plane’s weight down. Bathroom walls this thin have got to be fuel-saving!

@bfrist: Thanks @united. Connection made; all is well. But do you refund passengers for selling seats that don’t exist? http://tnne.ws/1czTx1H

PELOSI PLACES WAGER ON NINERS GAME – Either way, someone will be eating well after Sunday’s San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks matchup. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democrats in Washington state’s Congressional Delegation have made a friendly wager over the much-anticipated NFC championship game. From the leader’s office; “If the Seahawks win, Pelosi will provide the Washington delegation with San Francisco sourdough bread from Boudin’s Bakery and chocolate from Ghirardelli and TCHO.  If the 49ers win, Pelosi will receive Theo’s chocolate from Congressman Jim McDermott, Brown & Haley Almond Roca toffees from Congressman Adam Smith, Fischer fair scones from Congressman Denny Heck, craft gin from Everett’s Bluewater Distilling in Congressman Rick Larsen’s district, Woodinville wine and smoked salmon from Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, and apples from Amy’s Decadent Chocolates courtesy of Congressman Derek Kilmer. … ‘Seattle may try to keep our fans out of their stadium, but they will not keep the 49ers out of their end zone,’ Pelosi said.”

THURSDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – We’ll give credit to two winners: Shelby Boxenbaum correctly answered that Bruce King served as New Mexico governor during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, while our own White House editor Dan Berman answered that Bill Clinton served as Arkansas governor during those same three decades.  Other correct answers were Bill Janklow of South Dakota, Edwin Edwards of Louisiana, Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts and Jim Hunt of North Carolina.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Bruce Tannahill has a follow-up question: Who served as governor of the same state in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me atswong@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

POLITICO – Top 10 – Huddle

COBURN TO CUT SENATE TERM SHORT – Obama to call for NSA phone collection overhaul – CONGRESS OKs $1T OMNIBUS -- Weinstein, Streep to take aim at NRA in "Senator"s Wife"

Mississippi Republican Senator Cochran to seek seventh term

WASHINGTON Fri Dec 6, 2013 11:58am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi announced on Friday that he will run for re-election next year, ending speculation that the six-term Republican was ready to retire.

Cochran, who turns 76 on Saturday, made the announcement in an interview with a Mississippi newspaper, and his office confirmed it. Cochran faces a primary challenge by conservative State Senator Chris McDaniel.

Reuters: Politics

Mississippi Republican Senator Cochran to seek seventh term

Obama: We May Stay In Washington After Second Term Ends

ABC News: The first family might choose to stay in Washington, D.C., after President Obama leaves office in 2016, the president and first lady Michelle Obama told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in an interview.

By then, their eldest daughter Malia will be in college, and their youngest daughter Sasha will still be in high school as a sophomore.

“So we’ve gotta—you know we gotta make sure that she’s doin’ well… until she goes off to college,” the president said. “Sasha will have a big say in where we are.”

RealClearPolitics Video Log

Obama: We May Stay In Washington After Second Term Ends

Greek PM calls ties with Israel ‘strategic, long term’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu meets with his Greek counterpart, Antonis Samaras, in Jerusalem. Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO

Greece views its new and improved relationship with Israel as a strategic, long term partnership that is not dependent on the fate of Israel’s relationship with Turkey, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

The comments, according to diplomatic officials, came during a meeting the two leaders had as part of the first Israeli- Greek government-to-government meeting. Samaras arrived in Israel along with eight of his ministers to hold a day of intensive bilateral meetings during which some 10 agreements were signed in a variety of fields from public security to tourism and culture.

Related:

• 
  
  Greek ambassador: Despite apology, Turkey blocking Israel-NATO cooperation
  
  


• 
  
  Greek PM Samaris calls to ‘deracinate’ Golden Dawn party
  
  

Among the issues Netanyahu raised with Samaras was the EU settlement guidelines set to go into effect on January 1. The guidelines call, among other elements, for Israel to sign a “territorial clause” before entering into any new agreements with the EU that would stipulate that the agreement is inapplicable in east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank. Israel has said it would not sign such a clause and the two sides are currently negotiating over the implementation of the guidelines.

Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos discussed the matter during a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin. Elkin said that Venizelos supported Israel’s position on this matter, and has made his position clear to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Elkin said that Greece’s position on this matter had added importance since it will be taking over the EU’s rotating presidency on January 1.

Israeli officials have expressed confidence that a resolution to the issue can be found, citing the support of political leaders in a number of European states.

Among the areas of cooperation Netanyahu and Samaras discussed was the possibility of creating a gas triangle – Israel- Cyprus-Greece – with Greece the hub of Israeli and Cypriot gas exports to the rest of Europe.

Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Aryeh Mekel, said this government-to-government meeting “constitutes the peak in the new and upgraded relations between Israel and Greece that began some three years ago. As opposed to the past, today there is close cooperation in a number of fields.”

Mekel said there has also been a dramatic change in Greek public opinion, which in the past was negative toward Israel, but which today is in favor of close cooperation.

“In the long run this could be the most important element of the improvement in relations,” he said.

The flowering in Greek-Israeli ties began in 2010 and coincided with the sharp deterioration of Israeli-Turkish ties.

Netanyahu, during his meeting with Samaras, praised the Greeks for taking a tough stand against the neo-fascist Golden Dawn Party and arresting six of the party’s MPs following a public furor over the murder of an anti-fascist rapper by a Golden Dawn member.

In a joint appearance with Samaras after their meeting, Netanyahu said he wanted to commend his government for its “resolute opposition to neo- Nazism, anti-Semitism and racism. You have taken important steps, courageous steps that demonstrate clearly that Greece is a land of tolerance and freedom.”

He also commended Samaras for the way he has handled Greece’s economic crisis, and encouraged Israeli businessmen to “go and invest in Greece, it’s probably a very good deal.”

Netanyahu said the “smart money should be going to Greece now, as the smart money should be going to Israel always.”

One area where the two countries do not see eye-to-eye, however, is Iran, although the differences were not aired in public. While Netanyahu repeated his mantra that the pressure must be kept on Tehran, diplomatic officials have said that Greece – whose economy has been hurt by the sanctions it has imposed on oil imports from Iran – is in favor of giving Iranian President Hassan Rouhani a chance to prove himself, and that the West should perhaps ease up on some sanctions as a good will gesture.

During his public comments Netanyahu said that the Iranian regime sought a partial agreement that will ease the sanctions that have significantly hurt the Iranian economy.

“Of course what they want is merely the relaxation of sanctions without the real cessation of Iran’s program to develop military nuclear capability,” he said. “That is unacceptable. The sanctions must be continued, they must be strengthened until the Iranian military nuclear program is dismantled.”

Samaras, in his public comments, tellingly did not mention Iran.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

Greek PM calls ties with Israel ‘strategic, long term’

Term Limits

Tom Toles is a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist. Toles, a Pulitzer Prize winner, skillfully targets political, economic and social concerns – in particular, complicated environmental issues. Toles has received the 2011 Herblock Prize, the National Headliners Award, The Week Magazine’s Cartoonist of the Year award, the Overseas Press Club Thomas Nast Award, the National Cartoonists Society Editorial Cartoonist of the Year award, the John Fischetti Award and the H.L. Mencken Free Press Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1990.

Truthout Stories

Term Limits

Merkel eyes third term in tight German election

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germans voted on Sunday in an election expected to hand Chancellor Angela Merkel a third four-year term, but she may be forced into an awkward coalition with her leftist rivals following a surge in support for a new anti-euro party.

Reuters: Top News

Merkel eyes third term in tight German election

Obama and the Misery of a Second Term

Everyone elected president comes into office modeling himself on some predecessor: Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan. But those who win re-election eventually end up wondering whether they should have emulated James K. Polk instead. Why? Because he promised to serve only one term, and he stuck to it.

Barack Obama is probably reaching that stage about now. Ten months after concluding a victorious campaign, he finds himself with a public approval rating of 44 percent. That’s down 10 points since December — and the same as that of George W. Bush at this point in his presidency.

Obama’s threat to attack Syria has put him at odds with Congress and the public. By last weekend, The Washington Post reported that “a majority of House members are now on the record as either against or leaning against authorizing President Obama to use military force.”

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on the eve of his Tuesday TV address found that only 28 percent of Americans approved of his handling of the matter. Public support for the proposed attack, says Gallup, is lower than for any U.S. war in the past two decades.

The numbers reflect a couple of facts that are largely beyond his control. The first is that after 12 years of nonstop fighting in distant lands, Americans are sick of war. The second is that after nearly five years of watching him in the White House, many are also tired of Obama.

This is a common consequence of protracted exposure. Most TV series don’t last more than five years — and TV series don’t air seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. There have been several new iPhone models since Obama was first elected. If you bought a suit or a dress five years ago, it’s no longer the epitome of fashion.

Facing the aftermath of re-election is a challenge for the people in the administration, as well as the people they serve. Top aides burn out or cash in, leaving the White House to find replacements, who may not enjoy the same trust or access. Presidents run out of ideas. If they have any left over, they’re even less likely to be able to get them through the second time around.

Scandals also have a tendency to erupt in the second term, and the IRS targeting of tea party groups arrived this year right on schedule. All this comes before the midterm congressional elections, which typically bring losses to the party in the White House. Republicans are expected to enlarge their House majority and could capture the Senate.

Obama’s honeymoon with Democratic liberals is a fading memory. Some are disillusioned by the National Security Agency surveillance, some oppose an attack in Syria, and most of them gag at the thought of Larry Summers taking over the Federal Reserve.

While most presidents try to add new achievements in their second terms, Obama is still wrangling with Congress over the central one of his first term. The House has voted some 40 times to undo Obamacare, and some members want to force a government shutdown if necessary to attain that goal.

So the president may get to relive the exquisite torture of battling Congress over the debt ceiling.

Republicans show no inclination to pass the immigration reform he champions. The economy has been lousy for his entire presidency and shows every indication of staying that way.

Foreign affairs are no ray of sunshine. Vladimir Putin may have spared Obama a war in Syria, but Obama will have to take care to avoid being scammed in the deal on Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons. He has to extricate the U.S. military from Afghanistan without unleashing chaos.

North Korea reportedly has restarted a nuclear reactor to make fuel for additional nuclear weapons. Sometime in the next three years, Obama may have to decide whether to carry out a massive strike to prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb. It’s enough to make a guy wish he were free to focus on his presidential library.

At the end of the brilliant 1970 biographical film “Patton,” Gen. George Patton recalls that when a Roman conqueror returned home to bask in adulation, a slave rode along in his chariot, whispering, “All glory is fleeting.” Obama needs no one to remind him. By now, he probably says it in his sleep. 

RealClearPolitics – Articles

Obama and the Misery of a Second Term

Court to rule on Bamber life term

8 July 2013
Last updated at 19:05 ET

The European Court of Human Rights is due to rule on whether murderer Jeremy Bamber and two other killers should have their life sentences reviewed.

Bamber, along with serial killer Peter Moore and Douglas Vinter, argue that the whole life tariff is “inhuman”.

The court has previously ruled that such sentences do not violate a prisoner’s human rights, but the matter was referred to its grand chamber for the final say.

The ruling is expected at 09:30 BST.

The three men are among a group of 49 people in England and Wales who are serving whole life tariffs.

This means they cannot be released other than at the discretion of the justice secretary on compassionate grounds – for example, if they are terminally ill or seriously incapacitated.

They claim that being denied any prospect of release amounts to “inhuman and degrading” treatment and this is a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

They say they should be entitled to have their tariffs reviewed.

The case was referred to the grand chamber after the men narrowly lost their first European Court hearing in 2012: three of the seven judges ruled in their favour.

The court’s first ruling concluded that the men’s sentences were not “grossly disproportionate”.

Bamber was jailed for murdering five members of his family in Essex in 1985.

He has always protested his innocence and claims his schizophrenic sister Sheila Caffell shot her family before turning the gun on herself.

Moore killed four gay men for his sexual gratification in north Wales in 1995.

In 2008, Vinter, from Middlesbrough, admitted killing his wife Anne White. He had been released from prison in 2005 after serving nine years for murdering a colleague.

Last year, the Court of Appeal in London upheld the principle of whole life sentences for the most dangerous of offenders, saying it did not breach human rights.

At the time, the Lord Chief Justice said jail without the possibility of release should be “reserved for the few exceptionally serious offences”.

He said judges must be convinced those sentenced to whole life need to be held forever for punishment and retribution.

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Court to rule on Bamber life term

Second term mostly drama for Obama

• President Obama slammed by controversies, criticism from the right and left


• The bitter political divide of his first term remains, and may be getting worse


• Even the first lady got heckled — at a Democratic fundraiser, no less


• History shows that second terms can be tougher for presidents

Washington (CNN) — History shows that second terms in the White House can be much tougher than first ones, and that is proving true so far for President Barack Obama.

Less than five months in, Obama and his administration appear knocked off balance by a barrage of controversies and criticisms exacerbating the bitter political battles that marked his first four years in office.

He’s under fire from the right and left, accused by some of conspiratorial machinations to grab even more power than the leader of the free world legally holds.

Headlines are dominated by scandals such as the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups and classified leaks that disclosed details of the vast data mining and surveillance apparatus created after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, Republicans and some Democrats say his attorney general should resign over various issues including secret subpoenas of journalist phone records.

Even the first lady got heckled — at a Democratic fundraiser, no less. While the issue was gay rights, the incident showed how Obama supporters also were frustrated by what they consider to be a lack of sufficient progress on progressive issues they expect the president to champion.

Second-term blues

Second-term blues have been the norm for presidents in recent decades, with Ronald Reagan facing the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s and Bill Clinton getting impeached over the Monica Lewinskly affair in the 1990s.

To columnist and CNN contributor John Avlon, the latest Washington scandals “have put the president off balance,” with the administration on defense instead of driving the agenda.

“The choice will be in how the administration tries to deal with it,” Avlon said. “If it’s in denial and acts like these events are occurring outside its purview or control, that will be a big problem.”

Obama finds himself mired in topics and disputes far from his second-term agenda, in part because he maintained some of the national security policies of his predecessor that were adopted in a nation traumatized by 9/11, noted CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

“This is a president now who’s dealing with issues he never thought he was going to have to deal with,” Borger said Monday, referring to drone strikes, government surveillance and classified leaks. “But when you continue some of the policies of George W. Bush, you’re going to have some of the same questions that are raised about them.”

How should Obama respond?

Avlon and Borger agreed that Obama must be proactive in dealing with the newly revealed details about how the government has access to phone records and Internet activity as tools in fighting terrorism.

Last week’s leak of classified documents on the U.S. intelligence programs forced Obama to try to reassure the nation by declaring “nobody is listening to your telephone calls.”

However, the president who campaigned in 2007 by criticizing what he called his predecessor’s claim of a “false choice” between civil liberties and national security following the 2001 al Qaeda attacks now argued that such a choice was inevitable.

“You can’t have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience,” Obama said. “We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.”

Borger said Obama now needs to bolster his administration’s explanation so far — that Congress and federal judges have sufficient oversight to prevent abuses of the information available.

“I think he ought to get out there, speak with the American public, say not only why this kind of surveillance is defensible, but why he thinks it is essential in a post-9/11 world and lay it out there for the American people within the strictures of what he can say given the classified nature of the program,” she said.

CNN Chief National Correspondent John King noted that despite Obama’s insistence his administration struck a proper balance between national security and domestic surveillance, critics from ranging from libertarian GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to liberal Democratic Sens. Mark Udall of Colorado and Ron Wyden of Oregon are calling for more details and debate.

“If the president doesn’t try to get ahead of it, guess what, he’ll get dragged along with it,” King said.

Other issues on the table

The controversies come as the administration and Congress wrestle with other volatile issues, including a bipartisan push for immigration reform and a debate over whether to arm Syrian rebels.

Avlon and King agreed that Obama needs to move forward on issues where progress can occur, and both cited the Senate immigration bill that would offer a path to legal status for millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States.

Conservative Republicans fiercely oppose the measure, but more mainstream GOP legislators consider it vital to the party’s hopes of building support among the nation’s fastest-growing demographic — the Hispanic vote.

In last year’s presidential election, exit polls showed Obama trounced GOP nominee Mitt Romney among Hispanic voters.

“The fact that immigration reform looks possible is significant,” Avlon said, saying passage of a bill would be a “significant legacy accomplishment” for Obama and also a boost for Congress at a time of extremely low public approval ratings.

Republicans led by Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama consider the immigration measure drafted by a bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” little more than amnesty for undocumented immigrants. They demand stricter border enforcement provisions before providing legal status of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is looking at possible options this week to increase support to Syrian rebels after resisting persistent calls for months to provide weapons.

“There is a recognition that unless we provide help, a lot of help, the situation is going to be very, very terrible,” one senior administration official said.

The official described a “somber mood” among Syria hands throughout the administration, who remain frustrated at inaction by the Obama administration in the face of a deterioration on the ground in Syria and spillover to neighboring states like Lebanon.

GOP scrutinizes Justice Department

Republicans are quick to seize on any foreign policy objection with the Obama administration as an opening to attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is considered the leading possible Democratic presidential contender in 2016.

In the House, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has demanded more information on erroneous talking points by the administration four days after the terrorist attack last September on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the panel’s GOP chairman, also is a leading critic of Attorney General Eric Holder over the botched “Fast and Furious” gun walking program and other issues.

Holder now faces further scrutiny over the Justice Department’s secret subpoenas of phone records for Associated Press journalists last year as part of an investigation of a classified leak.

He has told legislators he recused himself from that case and never would prosecute a journalist for doing investigative reporting.

Republicans question if Holder lied to Congress when he told a congressional hearing last month that he had no knowledge of any possible prosecution of journalists linked to classified leaks.

Avlon said the various issues provide grist for Obama critics now, but the major factor in determining public opinion on a presidency will be the economy, which is moving in the right direction for the White House.

“Teflon presidents are Teflon in part because of the economy,” he said, rejecting accusations by some conservatives that Obama’s troubles amount to scandals that could lead to impeachment.

“The impulse to simply throw out Nixon narratives as a poster boy for the second-term curse is silly,” Avlon added. “This ain’t Watergate and calls for impeachment reflect hyperpartisan wishes rather than reality.”

CNN’s Elise Labott and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.

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Second term mostly drama for Obama

Pyromaniacs on the Potomac: The Problem With Obama"s Second Term

Six months into a second term and the Obama White House is on the defensive and floundering: Benghazi, the IRS’s investigations of right-wing groups, the Justice Department’s snooping into journalists’ phone records, Obamacare behind schedule, the Administration’s push for gun control ending in failure.

Should the blame fall mainly on congressional Republicans and their allies in the right-wing media, whose vitriolic attacks on Obama are unceasing?

After all, the only thing the GOP stands for — the sole mission that unites its warring factions — is an unwaivering determination to block anything the Administration seeks while distracting public attention from any larger issue.

But surely some of the seeming disarray is due to the president, whose insularity and aloofness make him an easy target, and whose eagerness to compromise and lack of focus continuously blurs his core message.

Is the central goal of his second term to achieve a grand bargain on the budget deficit? Or progress on gun control? Or restore jobs? Or reform the immigration laws? It is difficult to tell.

Vulnerabilities come with any Administration’s second term — when officials are exhausted, public support has worn thin, “A” teams have departed, the media are disenchanted, and all of the low-hanging fruit in a president’s agenda has already been picked.

I painfully recall Bill Clinton’s second term (I left before Monica). George W. Bush’s second term was marred by Iraq and a colossal failure on Social Security. Ronald Reagan’s, by the Iran-Contra scandal. Even FDR got mired in a so-called “court-packing” scheme that lost him public and congressional support.

Which is why it’s so important for a second-term White House to define itself — to give the public a clear sense of what it stands for, and how it intends to tackle the largest challenges facing the nation. And then to work hard on this core agenda without becoming overly distracted by the inevitable fires that have to be extinguished along the way.

Even if a president fails to achieve this larger objective, he will at least have established a predicate for the future, and given the public a larger goal around which to mobilize and organize.

Barack Obama is allowing the fires to dominate because he has not defined his core agenda. During the 2012 campaign it appeared to be restoring jobs, rebuilding the middle class, and reversing the scourge of widening inequality. Since then, though, the core has evaporated — leaving him and his administration vulnerable to every pyromaniac on the Potomac.

ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock” and “The Work of Nations.” His latest is an e-book, “Beyond Outrage,” now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

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Robert Reich

Pyromaniacs on the Potomac: The Problem With Obama"s Second Term