“I question the timing” (IQTT)

“I question the timing” means that someone suspects political motivation behind an action. For example, a politician in New York City used to have high publicity porn busts right before an election to show a “tough on crime” image. In the 2000s, terror announcements and arrests possibly served the same purpose.
 
“I question the timing” has been cited in print since at least 1972. In September 2005, the Ace of Spades HQ blog wrote, “IQTT (I question the timing; figure it’s about time for shorthand).”
 
 
4 November 1972, New York (NY) Times, “A Bellwether County in Wyoming Is Leaning Heavily Toward the President” by John Herber, pg. 15:
“I (Steve Lobell, a retired railroad worker—ed.) will vote for McGovern as a lesser of two evils. But the corruption is just politics and while I question the timing on Vietnam, I can’t imagine them using it as a political gimmick.”
 
Google Books
Michael Olesker’s Baltimore:
If you live here, you’re home
By Michael Olesker
Baltimore. MD: Johns Hopkins University Press
1995
Pg. 37:
On the front page of this newspaper last week, as pickets behind him decried the articles on Williams, Baltimore City councilman Nathaniel McFadden said, “I question the timing. Why now?”
   
Google Books
22 June 1999, The Advocate, pg. 42, col. 2:
Most recently, NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel quit the marchboard. “Basically, I question the timing of the march, its focus, and its strategy,” Lobel says. “We’ve marched on Washington three times. What’s different now?”
   
Google Groups: misc.legal
Newsgroups: misc.legal
From: “Larry”

Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 21:05:36 -0500
Local: Sun, Nov 3 2002 9:05 pm
Subject: Re: Vote for PEACE ! Vote DEMOCRAT !!!
 
Yes, I question the timing, but something tells me that Iraq is much closer to making and using a nuclear device than we all know.
     
Ace of Spades HQ
September 01, 2005
Air Enron’s Randi Rhodes: Bush Delights In Deaths Of Democrats
(...)
IQTT (I question the timing; figure it’s about time for shorthand).
 
Ace of Spades HQ
October 12, 2005
Syrian Minister “Commits Suicide;” Was Questioned Regarding Hariri Assassination
He committed suicide? IQTT (I question the timing).
 
Ace of Spades HQ
May 3, 2011
On “I Question the Timing”
The left made such a ridiculous habit of calling “I question the timing” that Google is full of references to that stupid catchphrase from this site alone.
 
Always mocking the left for it.
 
It became such a source of fun we didn’t even bother writing “I question the timing.” We just shorthanded it as “IQTT!”