Richard Cohen won't name names

That's why it's called a club. As in the Beltway media club.

Cohen's column in the WaPo today takes the press to task for being too easy on Sarah Palin's debate performance. He stresses that if, for instance, Sen. Hillary Clinton had done the things Palin did during her forum with Joe Biden (i.e. winking at the camera), the press would have unleashed non-stop ridicule.

We don't argue with that point. But here's the telling part of Cohen's column:

I could quote the hosannas of some of my colleagues, but I spare them the infamy that will surely follow them to their graves.

Cohen thinks the press failed at its job in covering Palin but he won't name any names because that might be mean. No wonder the standards for Beltway journalism seem to be evaporating. Journalists have no fear of ever being held accountable by their peers.