Coburn, who first publicized the earmark from Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, as an example of pork-barrel congressional spending, said Palin was instrumental in scuttling the project as Alaska's governor, The Washington Times reported Saturday.

"The bridge didn't get built because Sarah Palin had the guts to say it wasn't going to get built," Coburn told the newspaper.

Palin has been under attack by Democratic critics for initially supporting Stevens' earmark for the bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska, but later turning against it to align herself with the anti-earmark views of her running mate, GOP presidential nominee John McCain, the Arizona senator.

"I was for infrastructure being built in the state," she told ABC News. "And it's not inappropriate for a mayor or for a governor to request and to work with their Congress and their congressmen, their congresswomen, to plug into the federal budget along with every other state a share of the federal budget for infrastructure."