The Week

■ Russia, Hungary, Poland . . . (Sigh.) It must be nice to live in a country where you’re getting freer every day.

■ New taxes, anyone? Senator Bob Dole said on NBC’s Meet the Press that he’d favor a new gasoline tax—not, mind you, to reduce the deficit, but only to rebuild the infrastructure of the Bay Area to its pre-earthquake level. We’ve got a better idea: why not just suspend federal income taxes on Bay Area residents this year? It could set a useful precedent.