Sort of like the idle Colin Powell rumors that swirled before the 1996 and 2000 Republican conventions, we’ve been forced this campaign cycle to endure months of sporadic chatter about Condoleezza Rice’s supposed candidacy for the number two spot on the G.O.P. ticket.

Except that the speculation may have just taken a twist that the Powell talk never did: There’s suddenly reason to believe there might be something to it.  read more »

Right-wing foreign policy expert/financier Dan Senor and his brother-in-law, the neoconservative Jerusalem Post editorial page editor Saul Singer, are writing a book together about Israel's performance in the global economy. The book will be published by Twelve, the upstart imprint of Hachette Book Group led by publisher Jonathan Karp that makes a point of publishing only 12 books per year.

Mr. Senor, a regular commentator on Fox News who is married to CNN anchor Campbell Brown, recently served as a campaign adviser to Mitt Romney. Before that, he worked for the Bush administration as an adviser to Paul Bremer, who was at one point charged with overseeing the reconstruction of post-invasion Iraq. Mr. Senor's sister (his co-writer's wife) heads the Jerusalem office of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.

The book by Mr. Senor and Mr. Singer, titled Start Up Nation, will "explore Israel's success in the global economy," according to a description provided by Twelve's publicity director Cary Goldstein. Twelve acquired the book in a preempt from U.K.-based literary agent Ed Victor.