ROGER SIMON: R.I.P, Barry Rubin.

KENNETH ANDERSON: Reforming The Legal Definition Of “Covert Action.”

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 270. Paul Caron’s been doing this every day for nine months now. If you’re so inclined, you might click through to his comments and thank him.

WAPO: 2014 Senate races may be a referendum on Obama; if so, Democrats should worry.

If the 2014 election is a referendum on President Obama, Democrats are in deep trouble.

That’s according to a new state-by-state study of Obama’s job-approval ratings released by Gallup that puts his disapproval rating at over 50 percent in 10 of the 21 states where Democrats are defending Senate seats this fall. In many of those states, Republicans have recruited strong candidates and are preparing to spend big bucks to win the six seats they need to regain the majority.

Obama is deeply unpopular — with a disapproval rating higher than 55 percent — in five states: West Virginia (67.3 percent disapproval), Montana (60.9 percent), South Dakota (59.3 percent), Arkansas (57 percent) and Alaska (55.4 percent).

Beyond those five seats, there is a second tier of states where the president’s disapproval rating stands somewhere between 50 percent and 55 percent, including: Iowa (50.1 percent disapproval), New Hampshire (50.2 percent), North Carolina (50.4 percent), Colorado (51.2 percent) and Louisiana (53.9 percent).

There’s a good chance that second tier will get bigger between now and November.

IS IT REALLY A “DOUBLE STANDARD?” Or is it just that standards of attraction are different for women than for men?

AT AMAZON, deals in Home Organization. Also, cleaning gear.

Plus, revamp your Interior Design.

Also, today only: Up to 60% Off Select PC Components and Peripherals.

BYRON YORK: Are immigration reformers talking down chances so opponents will drop guard?

HMM: NNSA confirms uranium incident at Y-12; top official coming to Oak Ridge to address situation.

ANNALS OF THE .001 PERCENT: The Billionaires Start Lining Up Behind Hillary Clinton.

ALL HAIL HEMP: One cannabis cousin may have a better chance of being legalized in TN than another.

When he began promoting legalization of hemp, jokes state Sen. Frank Niceley, most people “thought I was crazy;” now they consider him “merely foolish.”

Actually, Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, and Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, have come a lot further than indicated by the quip adapted from an old comedy routine. The state’s top legislative leaders said last week that — after initial misgivings — they now support the proposal filed by the East Tennessee lawmakers (HB1392).

“I’m in,” said House Speaker Beth Harwell in an interview. Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey said he is “100 percent” in favor of the effort to make Tennessee the 11th state to legalize the cultivation and sale of hemp even though it is still classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has raised concerns about the hemp legalization hampering prosecution of those possessing or selling marijuana, a cousin plant that is classified in the same genus, cannabis. But TBI officials met with Faison and Niceley last week and suggested some revisions that they pledged to incorporate into the bill. With that, the legislators say, they anticipate TBI will not be opposing their bill.

Other legislators, however, still need convincing — along with Gov. Bill Haslam, who says he will be listening but so far is not committing one way or the other.

Why not?

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Obama denies any wrongdoing on IRS, Benghazi. “President Obama said Sunday there was “not even a smidgen” of corruption in the IRS targeting of conservative groups, and that his team did not try to deceive the nation about the terrorist attack in Benghazi to aid his reelection bid in 2012. In a contentious interview with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News before the Super Bowl, the president said he doesn’t remember meeting with former IRS chief Douglas Shulman during any of Mr. Shulman’s 157 visits to the White House during his first term.”

This reminds me of something: “Number of times that Hillary Clinton, providing testimony to Congress, said that she didn’t remember, didn’t know, or something similar: 250.”

SHOCKER: Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door On Capitol Hill.

Time to pass my revolving-door surtax, and apply it to Congress, too.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: UAW imports anti-worker thuggery to Tennessee.

SNAKE PLISSKEN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: De Blasio Undoing Progress in New York.

INDEED: Psychologist: Colleges foster environments ‘actively hostile’ toward men.

MARCUS WINTERS: Better Schools, Fewer Dollars:

Here’s what looks like a policy dilemma. To attain the economic growth that it desperately needs, the United States must improve its schools and train a workforce capable of competing in the global economy. Economists Eric Hanushek, Dean Jamison, Eliot Jamison, and Ludger Woessmann estimate that improving student achievement by half of one standard deviation—roughly the current difference between the United States and Finland—would increase U.S. GDP growth by about a full percentage point annually. Yet states and the federal government face severe budgetary constraints these days; how are policymakers supposed to improve student achievement while reducing school funding?

In reality, that task is far from impossible. The story of American education over the last three decades is one not of insufficient funds but of inefficient schools. Billions of new dollars have gone into the system, to little effect. Luckily, Americans are starting to recognize that we can improve schooling without paying an additional dime. In fact, by unleashing the power of educational choice, we might even save money while getting better results and helping the economy’s long-term prospects.

Indeed.

CATHY YOUNG: IS THERE REALLY A CYBER-WAR ON WOMEN? Or do women just complain more? Plus: “Much of the abuse Hess deplores is directed not simply at women, but at active feminists. This is easy to interpret as misogynist backlash against women’s quest for equality. Yet any honest discussion has to acknowledge the fact that modern feminism is not simply a pro-equality movement but rather, one that has disturbing strands of hate—a movement whose adherents argue that women should treat every man as a potential rapist and that the collective bashing of men is a justified response to women’s oppression. Internet feminists have played a major role in turning online discussion of gender issues into a toxic swamp that naturally attracts trolls.” Indeed.

TOM MAGUIRE NOTICES AND EXPLAINS A POLITICAL PARADOX: “In DemWorld it is ‘free trade’=bad, ‘more unskilled workers’=good. A baffling contradiction! Of course, the unskilled workers finding jobs abroad can’t vote Democratic here.”

THEY’RE OBVIOUSLY AFRAID OF STRONG, INDEPENDENT WOMEN: Left Initiates War on Women By Trying to Silence Dana Loesch. But trying to silence Dana Loesch? That’s like trying to out-crazy Stacy McCain. Not gonna happen.

ROSS DOUTHAT: The GOP’s Immigration Delusion.

The debate over immigration reform, rekindled last week by House Republican leaders, bears a superficial resemblance to last fall’s debate over the government shutdown.

Again, you have establishment Republicans transparently eager to cut a deal with the White House and a populist wing that doesn’t want to let them do it. Again, you have Republican business groups and donors wringing their hands over the intransigence of the base, while talk-radio hosts and right-wing bloggers warn against an imminent inside-the-Beltway sellout. Again, you have a bill that could pass the House tomorrow — but only if John Boehner was willing to live with having mostly Democrats voting for it.

Except there’s one big difference: This time, the populists are right.

They’re right about the policy, which remains a mess in every new compromise that’s floated — offering “solutions” that are unlikely to be permanent, enforcement provisions that probably won’t take effect, and favoring special interests, right and left, over the interests of the citizenry at large. . . .

So immigration policy is problematic on the merits — and then it’s politically problematic for Republicans as well. Immigration ranks 16th on the public’s list of priorities, according to the latest Pew numbers, so it’s difficult to see how making this the signature example of a new, solutions-oriented G.O.P. is going to help the party in the near term. Whereas it’s much easier to see how it helps the Democrats: if a bill passes, it will do so with heavy Democratic support, hand President Obama a policy victory at a time when he looks like a lame duck, and demoralize the right along the way.

But the New Oligarchs want it, and they’re big donors.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: A Beat-up, Exhausted, and Terrified Republican Establishment. Well, the NSA’s been listening, and they have stuff to hide.