Forget Sarah Palin -- Who is Sarah Page?

You know the guessing game will begin once Leonard Downie Jr.'s new novel, The Rules of the Game, comes out in January from Knopf.

The book is described by Amazon.com as "an electrifying fiction debut, [in which] the editor of The Washington Post gives us a novel of corruption and cover-ups at the highest levels of Washington politics. At its center are issues ripped from today’s headlines: a woman president, corruption in Congress, the press warned off national security issues, scandal in Iraq."

Downie, who spoke to us from his new office at the Post Monday where he is now vice president at large --  having left the executive editor job just last Friday --  says there is no link to Post folks: "It is not about The Washington Post," he stresses. "I wouldn't do anything fictional about the Post."

But, he reveals, the fictional editor of the paper, one Lou Runyan, is based partially on a Post legend: "The only person in the book modeled on a real person is the editor in the book, who is clearly modeled on Ben Bradlee, aspects of Ben Bradlee -- including his bravery as an editor."

The novel focuses on fictional reporter Sarah Page at the also fictional Washington Capital, where she "unearths the dark secrets of a powerful lobbying firm, exposing a network of wrongdoing that includes no-bid Pentagon contracts and a powerful holding company that buys favors from members of Congress," Amazon states.

"As she digs deeper, threatening phone calls in the middle of the night warn her that she’s compromising the nation’s safety. Before she’s finished untangling what turns out to be a noxious web of profiteering, a source will be murdered and a car bomb will nearly kill her. And when President Susan Cameron learns what Sarah has discovered, she will be forced to make a choice between her political future and the well-being of the nation."

So who is Sarah Page? A scribe based on someone from Downie's own former group of staffers? And how about President Cameron? A female George Bush or perhaps a Hillary Clinton-like figure?

Don’t be surprised if Posties and others in the close-knit world of D.C. press try to find some similarities between Page and anyone at Downie's longtime employer.

Meanwhile, on his first day as the former executive editor of the Post, Downie is once again following Ben Bradlee.

After holding the top editor job for the past 17 years that Bradlee once held, and before that serving as a managing editor like Bradlee had done, Downie is now in the same post Bradlee currently holds.

And in giving up his fifth-floor executive editor office to incoming top newsroom boss Marcus Brauchli, Downie has taken over Bradlee's former office on the seventh floor. Bradlee, still in the at-large position, moves up to the ninth floor, where former publisher and current Washington Post Company CEO Donald Graham sits as well.

"It is a nicer view," Downie says of his new digs. "I have a view of 15th Street that is nice. It will be an interesting place to work."

Downie says he is currently reviewing the proofs of The Rules of the Game and already has dates to speak at Arizona State University and Indiana University in October, with other likely college appearances to come. He is also in talks with several universities about being a visiting professor, but declined to name them.

"Things are nice, very nice," he adds. "I've got lots of things to do. A very busy autumn."

Downie's last weeks at the helm were not quiet as he attended both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, marking his 13th and 14th presidential election year conventions. "I was directing the coverage," he says. Downie also appeared in numerous Web video interviews for the Post's coverage, including this one last week in St. Paul.

Friday will bring a farewell reception for Downie in the Post auditorium where, he says, "it will be an opportunity for everyone in the building to shake my hand."

When Bradlee exited the executive editor's chair for Downie in 1991, he set a clear rule that he would not enter the newsroom for several months. Downie says he does not plan to visit the newsroom any time soon to bother Brauchli or managing editor Phil Bennett: "I want to let the newsroom bond with them."

In his usual low-key style, Downie's final exit from the newsroom last Friday included little fanfare, according to Post blogger Matt Schudel, who wrote in an item that he did receive a standing ovation: "Just before he turned the corner to the elevators, Downie turned and blew a kiss to the newsroom that has been his home for the past 44 years. A class act to the end."   --Joe Strupp