*Starred Review* Former Washington Post Executive Editor Downie makes his novelistic debut with this taut, brisk-paced tale of Washington chicanery and perfidy. An elderly Democratic president enters office with an able but inexperienced female vice president and must face all the problems of the post-Bush world. Months into his term, the president dies. Even worse, his chief campaign strategist, who is also a lobbyist, has placed other lobbyists in important positions to benefit his corporate clients. At the same time, a young female journalist at the city’s top newspaper has just been promoted to the national political desk, and even as she is learning the “rules of the game,” she uncovers evidence of appalling corruption in defense contracts related to the war on terror, to private security contractors, and to government involvement in the “dark side”—torture, rendition, and murder. Despite its ripped-from-the-headlines feel, Downie’s novel is far more than its real-life parallels. The characters are all fascinating mixes of ego, ambition, and motive, and the two female leads, in particular, are skillfully etched portraits of the special loneliness that comes from being buffeted by hidden agendas and personal uncertainties. The Rules of the Game is a tense and thrilling first novel about the extended aftermath of 9/11, and its impact is only heightened by the reader’s suspicion that Downie’s extrapolations may be veiled hints at revelations to come in the future. --Thomas Gaughan
Review
“Len Downie has written a truly great novel about five of the pillars of Washington life–secrets, trust, money, sex, and moral choice. Like all wonderful fiction, it gets to the very core of the world and personalities it describes. This is a deadly serious and elegantly told story about journalism, influence peddling, clandestine sources, and the presidency.”
-Bob Woodward
“The Rules of the Game is a powerful and dazzling story of conspiracy, murder and political corruption at the highest levels of government. As editor of the Washington Post, Len Downie learned all about the corrupting power of money when mixed with politics and war and he has used that knowledge to help shape a stunning novel.”
-Senator William S. Cohen
“From the first page, Len Downie’s inside knowledge of the intricate relationship between power and the press in Washington jumps out of the novel. It’s all here: greed, ambition, a national security breach, ego, and even romance. The founding fathers never quite imagined a capital city like this one.”
-Judy Woodruff, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer
“Len Downie serves up the entrails of our capital city’s underbelly like a gleeful mortician.”
-John Darnton, author of Black and White and Dead All Over
"Nobody understands the intersection of politics and journalism better than Len Downie–a great newspaper editor. Now, in this novel, he reminds us of what makes a great story–and how to tell it. The Rules of the Game–and its characters–couldn’t be more timely or relevant."
-Carl Bernstein
“[Leonard Downie Jr.] has fashioned The Rules of the Game with straightforward, uncluttered craftsmanship . . . This is a rollicking good story with extraordinarily well-paced action that clings together right to the end . . . A booming anthem to newspapering.”
-Michael Pakenham, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Savvy . . . The Rules of the Game is an engrossing read whose main value is its cunning take on the twisted gamesmanship that underlies Washington politics . . . [and] a persuasive piece of storytelling. Given the author’s pedigree, it is hardly surprising that the book has a strong whiff of authenticity . . . We’re watching a real pro at work.”
-Washington Post Book World
“Un-put-downable . . . Downie vividly demonstrates the stakes these people are paying for, both for themselves and for their country . . . The Rules of the Game is a compelling read, and also a primer in How Things Work in Washington.”
-Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times
“Engaging . . . It’s clear [Downie] has deep empathy for how stressful and isolating the life of an investigative reporter can be . . . Downie knows what game he’s in.”
-Mark Athitakis, Washington City Paper
“[Downie] builds his story . . . with a wealth of supporting details and a solid sense of veracity, whether he’s describing how government wheels are greased or how a big-city newsroom operates . . . Downie has written an entertaining first novel with a welcome, skeptical view of Washington gamesmanship.”
-Larry Aydlette, Palm Beach Post
“This taut, brisk-paced tale of Washington chicanery and perfidy . . . is far more than its real-life parallels. The characters are all fascinating mixes of ego, ambition, and motive, and the two female leads, in particular, are skillfully etched portraits . . . The Rules of the Game is a tense and thrilling first novel.”
-Starred review, Booklist
“The plot goes way deeper than the eerie similarities between Downie’s fiction and the political developments that only a crystal ball could have predicted . . . there’s . . . a lot that rings true about how investigative reporters work, how newspapers work, how lobbyists work, and how politics work . . . the layers of revelation should captivate readers.”
-Kirkus
“Mr. Downie is an expert Washington hand . . . If his political characters tend to speechify just a bit too prettily, speaking in theses and talking points, just think what pleasure it must be for a long-time Washington journalist to finally put decent words into politicians’ mouths.”
-The Economist
“Nicely executed . . . Downie exposes corruption at the highest levels and shows how national security trumps pretty much everything, including justice, in an entertaining . . . tale of murder, cover-ups, and personal courage.”
-Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Leonard Downie Jr. was executive editor of The Washington Post for seventeen years, during which time its news staff won twenty-five Pulitzer Prizes, including three Pulitzer gold medals for public service. His books include The New Muckrakers and The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril (with Robert G. Kaiser), which won the Goldsmith Award from the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is now a vice president of The Washington Post Company and lives with his wife, Janice, in Washington, D.C.
From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Stephen Amidon As the case of Rod Blagojevich demonstrates, people involved in politics can sometimes view the rules of their game very differently from the rest of us. The Illinois governor was allegedly so convinced that there was nothing wrong with selling a Senate seat that when an FBI agent called to say he was about to be arrested, Blagojevich asked if it were a joke. Leonard Downie Jr.'s savvy first novel, set in contemporary D.C., captures this atmosphere of ethical relativity. Downie, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, writes about the corridors of power as if they all lead to an exclusive back room at a Vegas casino, where several high-stakes games are in progress, each watched over by a remorseless security team with an agenda all its own. The newest player in town is Sarah Page, a young reporter at the Washington Capital newspaper. After cutting her teeth covering the Maryland state house, where she distinguished herself with her doggedness but also landed in hot water for sleeping with a senior colleague, Sarah is moved to the paper's vaunted national political team to cover the money side of the game. Her first assignment is to take a hard look at veteran consultant Trent Tucker, a "walking conflict of interest" who treads a fine line between getting politicians elected and lobbying for corporate interests. Tucker is currently the chief strategist for Monroe Capehart, the aging Democratic nominee for the presidency who has just chosen an attractive younger woman, California senator Susan Cameron, as his running mate. It doesn't take Sarah long to uncover all sorts of dirty dealings on Tucker's part, most notably his entanglement with Carter Phillips, a retired Special Forces general who now runs a shadowy defense contractor called Palisar International. Sarah's digging reveals that Phillips and Tucker have set up an elaborate scheme in which subcontractors "pay to play" by kicking back a portion of their government largesse to the legislators who award them contracts, with Palisar serving as a well-paid middle man. After a House staffer who was Sarah's chief informant is killed by a hit-and-run driver, she realizes that she has stepped through the looking glass into a political netherworld where "ideological purity [is] folly," money and national security are the only absolutes, and no one except her editor is to be trusted. The plot becomes even thicker when it turns out that the kickback scheme is just the tip of an iceberg that involves some of the more extreme practices of our intelligence services in the war on terror. The Rules of the Game is an engrossing read whose main value is its cunning take on the twisted gamesmanship that underlies Washington politics. Despite often resembling a pack of underfed hyenas, Downie's characters all see themselves as playing by rules that are fundamentally ethical. Tucker might look like a garden-variety conman, but in his own mind he is only practicing a time-honored tradition that greases the wheels of a broken-down government. Phillips, meanwhile, seems to be a war criminal in the making, though from another angle he is simply serving a country that demands radical measures against its foes and yet doesn't have the stomach to ask what's happening behind the interrogation room doors. Even Susan Cameron, with her sterling integrity and flawlessly progressive agenda, played some ruthless matrimonial hardball to take over the Senate seat of her disgraced ex-husband. These often tangential ethical pathways create an elaborate maze for Sarah to negotiate, even as she plunges down a few blind alleys of her own. While Downie's fictional abilities are not always up to his political sophistication -- his style is never more than pedestrian, and he allows a few of his storylines to wither on the vine -- The Rules of the Game remains a persuasive piece of storytelling. Given the author's pedigree, it is hardly surprising that the book has a strong whiff of authenticity. Downie's best scenes involve meetings in which the give-and-take of Washington power is dramatized: a newspaper publisher standing up to the CIA after being summoned to Langley, a lawyer striking a plea arrangement for a client, a congressman and reporter delineating the limits of the personal and professional before jumping into the sack. Most impressive, however, is Downie's creation of Sen. Cameron, the fetching young political superstar who dons "a fitted royal blue jacket and skirt that subtly highlighted her figure" while delivering a convention speech that trashes her geriatric running mate's opponent. Either Downie is astonishingly prescient, writing this before the advent of Sarah Palin, or he managed to do it afterward, in which case he is astoundingly fast. Whichever it was, her creation is evidence that we're watching a real pro at work.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
It was a moment Sarah Page had been working toward ever since she first walked into the Washington Capital newsroom six summers earlier. Yet it felt as though she was being punished.
“I have rules,” Ron Jones, the political editor, was warning her. “And I expect you to follow them.”
Jones, a big, burly man, overwhelmed the little desk that separated them in his cramped, glass-walled office on the edge of the newsroom.
“Do I have to explain it all over again?” Sarah asked. She knew she had to keep her composure or miss this opportunity to move onto the national politics staff. She sat as tall as she could in a chair facing Jones.
“Of course not,” he told her, softening his tone. “And I’m not blaming you. Evans should’ve known better. He was an editor.”
“He wasn’t really my editor,” Sarah said. It was important that she not be seen as a victim, a naïve young woman seduced by her boss. She didn’t want special treatment.
“Investigative projects get pretty intense. At least this one did,” she said softly. “Is that why I’m being moved?”
“Hell, no,” said Jones. “I wouldn’t let the local staff dump anyone on me. I asked for you. You did good work on those lobbyists in Maryland.
“And you were tough but fair with the governor,” he added, “even though she’s a woman.”
Sarah hated being constantly reminded that politics was still mostly a man’s game. In Annapolis, the suggestive comments of leering legislators and dismissive slights by some of the veteran reporters had made it clear she would never be one of the boys. In the newsroom, she had faced the widespread assumption that male colleagues had the inside track to the national politics staff.
Before she could respond, Jones smiled knowingly, as though sharing an inside joke.
“C’mon, look at me,” he told her, spreading wide his huge arms. “Don’t you think people have always seen a big bad black man before thinking anything else? It’s only made me more aggressive. Sometimes, in this business, it helps to have a chip on your shoulder.”
Sarah thought about that for a moment.
“You think I do?”
“I know it’s a cliché,” Jones said, looking at her intently. “But I see a determined young woman fighting for respect. I also see something of an idealist, but we’ll cure you of that.”
Sarah saw herself as a fighter, too, but not necessarily an idealist. Her parents, who had grown up in the sixties and worked as reporters in Washington, had always talked about a sense of mission in journalism after Watergate. But that was before they switched to public relations and lobbying, where the money was.
“So why aren’t there more women on your staff?” she asked Jones.
“Fair question. I inherited these guys, and nobody ever leaves. So I asked for you the minute I heard they wanted to separate you and your editor friend.”
“Former friend,” Sarah shot back. “He dumped me.”
“Sounds like you’re still pissed.”
“I am. It’s all over the newsroom, for heaven’s sake. But I’m dealing with it. I just have no social life.”
“You don’t have to be a nun,” Jones told her. “But there’re no secrets in political reporting. So it’s not a good idea to fraternize on the beat.
“Some of my guys aren’t happy about you,” Jones added. “They don’t think you’ve had enough experience. And a couple of them are close to Evans. They resent your coming over here after what happened to him.”
“So you’re really not doing me any favors.”
“Listen. I know how badly you wanted this. And you’re getting it a few years early.” Jones leaned back in his chair. “You know, when you think about it, you should be kissing my ass.”
They both laughed, and Sarah relaxed enough to make her pitch.
“I’d like to cover money.”
“That’s just what I figured.” Jones smiled at her directness. “And I don’t have anyone on it full-time yet. The Democrats are raising and spending more than ever to take back the White House, and the Republicans are matching them dollar for dollar. I’m particularly interested in what Trent Tucker will be doing.”
Sarah nodded.
“You know who Tucker is, don’t you?” Jones asked. “He’s running Monroe Capehart’s campaign for the Democrats. I think he did some work for Elizabeth Tawney in Maryland.”
Sarah froze for a moment. Was he testing her?
“I met him when I was covering Governor Tawney,” she said carefully. “He was a consultant for her campaign.”
“Well, he might be a good place for you to start,” Jones said. “He’s a walking conflict of interest. A consultant and a lobbyist. He helps put them into office and then he lobbies them on behalf of his business clients. If Capehart wins, Tucker will have the run of the White House.”
Sarah had known she wouldn’t be able to avoid Tucker if she covered money and politics. But she felt she had prepared herself for it.
“I’ll send you to the conventions so you can meet everyone,” Jones said. “You’ll have a few weeks to do some homework before the Democrats go to Chicago. I’ll make sure your new colleagues help you.”
“I’m okay on my own,” Sarah said. “I’ve always been pretty independent— you know, the only child of two workaholics.”
Jones could already tell she was a loner, the kind of instinctive outsider who, in the news business, often gravitated to investigative reporting. But he wondered who she was trying to convince, him or herself?
Less than five minutes after Sarah left Jones’s office, Mark Daniels strolled in. Jones made a show of looking at his watch.
“What took you so long?”
“You’re not really bringing Sarah Page over here, are you?”
Mark knew the decision had been made, but he didn’t like it.
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t understand politics,” Mark said, casually perching himself on the edge of Jones’s desk. “She’s really an investigative reporter.”
“She was investigating politicians.”
“That was in Maryland. This is the big leagues.”
“C’mon, Mark,” Jones said. “Your real problem is your friend Evans. He gets busted. She gets promoted. And that doesn’t seem fair to you. Do married guys who fool around have some kind of club?”
“Low blow.” Mark slid off the desk and flopped onto the worn black leather couch on the other side of the office. “I’ve never messed around with anyone in the newsroom. Anyway, whatever became of consenting adults?”
“They had to be separated.” Jones went through the motions of explaining what Mark already knew. “Evans was one of her supervisors on Metro. He broke the rules, so he gets exiled to a suburban bureau. I asked for Page because she has potential, and I needed more bodies for the campaign. I wanted someone who could do money, which she did in Maryland.”
“I heard she thought everybody in the legislature was on the take.”
“Some of them were, including a couple of the governor’s allies. Page did Tawney a favor.”
“Tom told me he had to rein her in.”
Jones leaned forward over his desk.
“So,” he said, slowly and emphatically, “Evans wasn’t just screwing around behind his wife’s back. He was also bad-mouthing his girlfriend behind her back.”
“I shouldn’t have said that.” Mark straightened up on the couch.
“Damn right,” Jones told him. “Sarah’s part of the team now. I’m sending her to the conventions, and I want you to show her around.”
A few days later, on the Fourth of July, Sarah allowed herself to sleep late in the small house she shared in the old Palisades neighborhood, just beyond Georgetown on a bluff above the Potomac River. Her housemate, a lawyer, who was intent on becoming a partner in her firm, had already left to spend the holiday working downtown. Sarah’s task for the day was nearer at hand.
The late morning sunlight was filling her upstairs bedroom. She threw on a T-shirt, shorts, running shoes, and a baseball cap that covered her short black hair. Rather than going for a run or to the gym, as she did most mornings, she walked over to MacArthur Boulevard, where she knew the Fourth of July Palisades parade would be starting.
It was a distinctly neighborhood affair, with fire trucks from the local engine house and police cars from the Second District sounding their sirens, a big refrigerated truck from Safeway honking its air horn, and open convertibles carrying parents and children from local churches and schools. It was traditionally political, with the mayor and members of the city council marching amid supporters who handed out campaign buttons and bumper stickers. It was also eclectic, with representatives of the Oldest Inhabitants association in antique cars, a Bolivian dancing troupe in brightly colored costumes, Scottish bagpipers in plaid kilts, and a gay marching band called D.C.’s Different Drummers.
Sarah walked the length of the parade route down to the edge of the Georgetown Reservoir and back toward Palisades Park, studying faces in the crowd thr...
