I hope you’re sitting down for this: the New York Times did some actual journalism this week. I know, right? But seriously, they did. The Times ran a story about how Democrats in Alaska, specifically the campaign staff of the Democrat nominee for the Senate, Mary Peltola, cooked up an idea to try to fool voters into electing her and then executed it to near perfection. Their only flaw? Someone talked to the Times BEFORE the election.

Dirty tricks are nothing new in politics, of course, but the stories of them usually come out after the votes have been cast; they come out in books about the race or investigative reports that win awards – real behind-the-scenes tales of how politics really works.

In this case, a fired former campaign manager talked out of spite. And while that should normally be enough to cause skepticism, she brought the receipts and tried to retract it all, likely out of fear of never working in the state again. To their credit, the Times ran the story anyway, writing, “Last week, as The Times prepared to publish this article, Ms. Rios, who had been planning to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Peltola campaign, contacted The Times and said she wanted to take back her previous statements.”

I understand your instinct to think this was a stupid plan that would never work. You........

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