Yesterday the Anchorage Daily News used Sarah Palin’s own words to show that she had been a full-throated supporter of the “Bridge to Nowhere” in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, even mocking opponents as elitists who didn’t care about the lives of “Valley trash”:

In September, 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town’s prosperity.

She said she could feel the town’s pain at being derided as a “nowhere” by prominent politicians, noting that her home town, Wasilla, had recently been insulted by the state Senate president, Ben Stevens.

“OK, you’ve got Valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere,” Palin said, according to an account in the Ketchikan Daily News. “I think we’re going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project.”

So why does the New York Times today weigh in with a weak story, headlined “Account of a Bridge’s Death Slightly Exaggerated,” that leaves you thinking that maybe she did, maybe she didn’t?