Everybody loves to question the timing. But how about questioning the timing of the questioning of the timing?

Last year, Philadelphia's Mayor John Street "discovered" that the evil Bush administration had planted a Watergate-style bug in his office. Street had been behind in a close race, but the hoopla surrounding the bug -- replete with charges of Watergatism and racism -- turned what would in older days have been a defeat into victory.

Terry McAuliffe (who appeared out of nowhere right after the bug was "found") was a major part of the Bush-bash festivities:

"Serious questions arise when the Democratic mayor of the fifth-largest city in the country discovers, just weeks before a close election, that senior Bush administration officials approved a plan to bug his office," Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.

In the latest twist, federal investigators are asking questions about something I'd like to know: how'd the word about the bug get to Philadelphia's Street? Who leaked?

Might the Street adminstration have been given an inside tip from a Justice Department "mole"?

In the old days, bugs were used to stop leaks. Now, it seems to be the other way around. And, of course, in the old days, corruption scandals meant defeat; now they mean victory!

I do think it's a bit strange that when the bug was detected a year ago, bug sweeping was described as "routine." But now that the investigation has focused on the leak, the former officials are saying that there had only been one sweep in the previous five years:

After the news of the bug broke, former Police Commissioner John F. Timoney and other former top commanders said that City Hall sweeps were far from routine.

A former head of Internal Affairs, the division with expertise on surveillance, recalled only one before Oct. 7 in the previous five years.

Johnson countered by saying that he had been in charge of mayoral security for the last three mayors and had conducted sweeps without telling his superiors, including Timoney.

He also said others in the department had not learned of all sweeps because he had used outside personnel. He suggested that he had bartered with other law enforcement agencies for the free use of their experts.

Johnson said he had avoided using Philadelphia police for fear that they would leak word of the searches to the media. He did not say why he had nonetheless chosen to use Philadelphia police for the Oct. 7 sweep.

His comments baffled and annoyed some of Johnson's colleagues, who said they found them implausible and insulting to local police.

It now appears that Mayor Street's aide George Burrell ordered the sweep because he "had a feeling."

One person familiar with Johnson's account said that the police commissioner recalled that Burrell told him, "I have a feeling. I just have a feeling," that the office needed to be checked.

I have a feeling too!

This whole thing reeks.

It almost makes New Jersey Governor McGreevey look clean by comparison....

UPDATE: When I said that bug sweeping had originally been described as "routine," I had not seen this contemporaneous account:

7 a.m

The story of Oct. 7 begins at the Roundhouse, the police headquarters building, where Mayor Street attended a meeting with Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson on Operation Safe Streets.

The commissioner knew something that the mayor did not. Johnson knew that, nine blocks away, three officers from the Police Impac Unit - a division of the Internal Affairs Bureau - were in Street's second-floor office in City Hall, conducting a security sweep.

The sweep, which occurs every three or four months and can take two to three hours, involves searching desk drawers, telephones and ceiling tiles, starting in one location and working around the room.

Johnson's phone rang at 7:30 a.m. The officers in Street's office had found something - a sophisticated electronic listening device.

Soon, a campaign strategist said, the message had been distilled into a set of talking points for national Democrats who were calling to offer support, including Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe, strategist James Carville and Donna Brazile, who ran Vice President Al Gore's campaign in 2000.

The key points: the timing of the bug seemed suspicious; Street had 25 years of integrity in public service, and the U.S. Department of Justice should not insert itself in a competitive race with "national implications" four weeks before Election Day.

The pols were told to stay away from comments like "the mayor has done nothing wrong," which seemed too defensive.

When labor leader and top Street supporter John Dougherty returned a call from a reporter in mid-afternoon, he too pulled no punches. He called the timing suspicious.

"You have an African-American Democratic mayor who's starting to pull ahead in the polls...Suddenly there are newly placed listening devices in the mayor's office."

3:30 p.m.

Still, there was more emotion than news. Commissioner John- son returned to City Hall to meet with Street. In the mayor's conference room, he and the Police Department's chief legal counsel, Karen Simmons briefed the mayor; mayoral adviser George Burrell; Shawn Fordham, Street's campaign manager; and Dan Fee, the campaign's senior communications adviser.

Simmons' attorney, Patrick J. Egan, said yesterday that his client had not violated any law.

"She categorically denies having any specific knowledge that there was a bug in the mayor's office," Egan said. "She never told anyone she knew there was a bug in the office."

When labor leader and top Street supporter John Dougherty returned a call from a reporter in mid-afternoon, he too pulled no punches. He called the timing suspicious.

"You have an African-American Democratic mayor who's starting to pull ahead in the polls...Suddenly there are newly placed listening devices in the mayor's office."