James R. Carroll

WASHINGTON - At first, it was a bit surprising to see New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's new book sitting on the desk of Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

But there it was, "Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World," right at Paul's elbow on his Capitol Hill office desk.

When I spotted it, Paul playfully posed with it for a picture.

And, it turns out, Gillibrand wrote a lengthy inscription to Paul and his wife, Kelley, on the front fly leaf. I saw it but could not read it before Paul gently closed the cover. He considers that personal, not public.

So here we have a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate with a book by a potential Democratic presidential candidate sometime in the future or, if former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton does not run, perhaps in 2016 as well.

Paul noted right away that he and New York's junior senator worked together last year and early this year on a bill that would have taken the decision to prosecute sexual assault cases in the military out of the chain of command. It was a reform victims of such assaults urged.

In her book, Gillibrand writes of the effort to get the legislation through the Senate. While the bill passed with 55 votes, that was five short of the 60 votes needed.

She names Paul in the book as one of "our stalwarts" on the issue who "all made impassioned pleas" for the measure.