President Obama hosts Hanukkah reception

In a strange reference presumably to news that the Department of Justice secretly subpoenaed two months' worth of phone records from the Associated Press, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joked with reporters that "we're going to subpoena all of you if you don't go to mute on your phones."

As a "diplomatic courtesy," the United States "has begun to allow limited use of the name Myanmar" to describe the former pariah state of Burma as it inches closer toward democracy, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday - but official U.S. policy, he added, "remains that Burma is the name of the country."

In a photo op Monday afternoon with Burma's president, Thein Sein, President Obama repeatedly referred to the nation as Myanmar - new acknowledgement of a "diplomatic courtesy" allowing "limited use of the name" to describe the former pariah state, though official U.S. policy "remains that Burma is the name of the country."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Denis McDonough, President Obama's chief of staff, was among a handful of senior aides informed of the Treasury inspector general's findings that the IRS was targeting conservative groups for heightened scrutiny in their tax-exempt application process - but insisted he did not intervene in the "ongoing" investigation, or tell the president.

Unveiling an annual report on the global status of religious freedom, Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday reinforced America's commitment to promoting freedom of religion worldwide, and pledged to push restrictive countries - including U.S. allies - toward expanded rights even if it makes them "uncomfortable."

During remarks at a Democratic fundraiser, President Obama avoiding mentioning recent controversies but criticized the "tendency in Washington to put politics ahead of policy, to put the next election ahead of the next generation," saying, "that mindset is what we need to change" if we hope to move America forward.