But that hasn't stopped both Republicans and Democrats from insinuating nefarious shenanigans worthy of Robert Ludlum. (Possible titles: "The Austin Postmark," "The Downey Conundrum" and "The Rove Allegations.") Bush campaign officials are accusing the Gore campaign of knowing more about political espionage than it's telling; Gore supporters, and even the vice president himself, have hinted that they think they're being set up. This week, the head of the Texas Democratic Party went so far as to say that the whole affair reminds her of dirty tricks past by Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, though she had no evidence whatsoever to link Rove to the creepiest incident so far in Campaign 2000.

Other Democrats were quick to point out that Rove himself had once been involved in telling reporters about an FBI investigation of an opposing candidate, and had even possibly lied before a Texas state Senate hearing when asked about the matter. Absolutely none of this tied Rove to this latest incident, but that didn't stop Democrats from blanket-faxing the media universe with background materials about the 1990 hearing, as well as about other accounts of Rove's more questionable dealings.

The high-stakes game of "Spy vs. Spy" began on Sept. 13, when a pal of Gore's, former Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y., received a mysterious package with an Austin, Texas, postmark. It contained a tape of Bush practicing for his pending debates with Gore, as well as a sheaf of debate preparation materials, all of which Downey says he immediately turned over to the FBI. It has yet to be revealed who sent the materials to Downey, but the former Long Island congressman has since recused himself from helping Gore prepare for the debates.

Immediately the guessing game began. Was there a Gore spy, as the Bush campaign believes, or were the Gore-bies being set up by Bush dirty tricksters? During a Sunday conference call with reporters on the subject of Medicare, Gore seemed to imply that the Bush campaign was involved. "If they keep sending -- if somebody in the Bush campaign keeps sending -- confidential internal data to us, we'll keep turning it over to the FBI."

Asked if he was insinuating -- without any proof -- that the tape incident was part of a "dirty trick" by the Bush campaign, Gore said that he had "no comment. I don't know who sent it; I don't know why that person sent it. I read the reports that the FBI had identified a Bush campaign official as the person responsible."

Media reports have since stated that the FBI believes it knows who mailed the materials to Downey, and has identified the person as a member of the Bush campaign.

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