well, here's the usage that triggered this for me (again):

The facts continued to beg the question: Did the long arm of Adolf Hitler reach across the sea and into this noisy little American beach town? Had the Nazis hounded this troubled American of German blood until he'd finally put a bullet through his [own] head? "You'll have to ask Hitler when you see him," said the sheriff. "As far as I'm concerned, it's an open-and-shut case."

(from _Two O'clock Eastern Wartime_, a period thriller by John Dunning)

no avoiding the question here, just a device for raising it. it sounded paritcularly false in this WWII setting. but this is the kind of usage I hear or read frequently.