From trade to Iran sanctions, the Keystone XL pipeline, Obamacare, the National Security Agency and energy policy, Senate Democrats seem unusually comfortable criticizing the president, with only minimal concerns about repercussions from the White House.

Even Obama’s steadfast ally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, didn’t mince words last week when he rejected a bill to fast-track trade deals that is strongly backed by the White House, working against Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, a Senate colleague who has been tapped to be the president’s ambassador to China.

Even some Republicans are noticing.

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“You had two or three Democrats in the Senate who made statements after the president’s State of the Union speech that wouldn’t have been written any different if they had been written by the [National] Republican Senatorial Committee,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), referring to the Senate GOP campaign arm’s aggressive anti-Obama messaging.

Blunt was referring to discontented Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who insists that Obama misspoke during his State of the Union speech when he told Congress that he will work with lawmakers when he can — and go around them if he can’t.

“I don’t think that’s what he meant. I swear to God I don’t,” Manchin said in an interview. “Could he have picked these words better? I would have thought he could have, I would have hoped he would have. But it came out offensive to a lot of people.”

For some lawmakers, the criticism is predictable: Democrats from energy-producing states are likely to whack the administration’s energy policies and red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2014 are worried about Obamacare fallout. In some instances, the contrasts between vulnerable Senate Democrats and the White House appear to be orchestrated to counter Obama’s low approval rates in red states where incumbents will face voters this fall, congressional aides in both parties suggest.

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But not all the criticism is coming from expected quarters.

Liberal Democrats have decried NSA surveillance programs, and Democrats not up for reelection for years seem perfectly at ease clashing with the White House.

“I think the framers did an incredible job of finding the right balance, so, we’ve gotten away from that. And when we get back to that, my outspokenness will diminish,” said freshman Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a persistent critic of the White House on NSA policy.

The rifts might represent nothing more than bad message coordination and a White House that doesn’t do enough to keep Capitol Hill in the loop. President Barack Obama does not have terribly close personal relationships with most Democratic lawmakers, and his legislative affairs shop was riddled with Capitol Hill criticism until the recent addition of longtime Hill staffer Katie Beirne Fallon.

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“This White House has been very, how shall I say, it’s not their strong suit to give anybody a heads-up on anything,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) of Obama’s outreach to Democratic senators.

Landrieu — who is up for reelection this year — was angered recently by a surprise Statement of Administration Policy ripping her flood insurance bill, which would ease rate increases that would disproportionately hit flood-prone Louisiana. Obama’s aides indicated the bill is not sound fiscal policy, though they notably did not threaten a veto of her bill.

“I believe in many of the principles of the Democratic Party. But I stay focused on the issues that are important to Louisiana. And when the president is for Louisiana, I’m for the president. When he’s not, I’m not,” Landrieu said. “That statement from them was unsolicited, it was unexpected and it was misguided.”

The Senate-White House fractures don’t yet extend to the key 2014 issues of income inequality and the economy. Democrats and the White House are united on raising the minimum wage, extending expired unemployment benefits and lifting the debt ceiling, items their party hopes to make bedrock issues during a campaign year.

But beneath the surface of party unity, Democratic critics appear not to think twice before criticizing Obama nearly everywhere else he turns.

Conservative Democrat Manchin — who is not up for reelection until 2018 — is part of perhaps the strongest Obama opposition faction in the Senate, one that would approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and killed carbon cap legislation in 2010. This group of Democrats critical of the administration’s stances on coal, energy exports and Keystone is getting louder as the president’s term counts down.

Even media-shy senators like Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota feel strongly enough about Obama’s energy rhetoric in the SOTU to pipe up on the issue.

In a rare interview, Heitkamp called Obama’s energy policies “schizophrenic” and not helpful to her state, which is booming from energy production. She also said the White House’s energy policy has many more flaws than simply failing to approve Keystone.

“He talks about energy policy and used the word ‘bridge.’ No one’s talked about that. We’re using natural gas as a bridge fuel? You know, that doesn’t sound like he’s committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy,” said Heitkamp, who isn’t up for reelection until 2018. “He talks about the great news where we now cross the line where we’re producing more than we’re importing. Well, that happened because of tax policies and innovations. Yet he would dismantle and unravel those policies.”

While Landrieu has endorsed changes to Obamacare and approval of Keystone, she has been most outspoken on flood insurance. Considering her bill passed the Senate last week, it appears likely she will be able to tell voters later this year that she stood up to Obama and got a new law enshrined over the president’s objections. That’s not a bad thing to take home to Louisiana, where Obama’s approval rate is well underwater.

Obamacare is a tougher issue for vulnerable Democrats, and a group of those lawmakers is meetingregularly on how the Senate and White House can work to soothe voters in tough states for Democrats. Republicans hope to make the November elections a referendum on Obamacare, and Democratic senators can separate themselves only so much from the president given that most of them voted for the law.

“The White House and the Senate leadership understands the need of senators in states where the president is not popular to differentiate themselves from the president when they can,” Blunt said. ”On the health care bill, it’s going to be particularly difficult because all of them voted for it, all of them supported it. And it’s not going to get better between now and Election Day.”

The White House has been successful in quelling some of the party’s internal noise, getting lawmakers on the same page as the president either because of policy shifts from the White House or successful outreach. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was one of the loudest voices calling for stronger Iran sanctions and sweeping changes to the NSA’s data-mining programs.

Now he’s more likely to praise the administration’s proposed NSA changes and diplomatic progress with Iran — and strongly disputes the suggestion that things were ever contentious on either issue.

“I believe in a peaceful solution in stopping a nuclear-armed Iran. We share that goal, and I’m hopeful that the negotiations will succeed. As long as there is meaningful and visible progress there may be no need for a vote,” he said. On the subject of the NSA, he added: “The term squeaky wheel implies contentiousness or conflict. But it’s been much more collaborative.”

Not everyone comes around. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said he won’t join a number of Democrats now shrinking from a vote on a new Iran sanctions bill. And intelligence critics like Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Heinrich don’t appear to be going anywhere until changes to the NSA are more firmly settled and privacy and national security better balanced.

Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.