WASHINGTON —  Wonkette is getting a new identity.

Ana Marie Cox, the voice behind the racy and gossip-filled political blog, is stepping down later this month after signing a second book deal.

Taking her place will be David Lat, a 30-year-old lawyer who anonymously wrote the irreverent legal blog Underneath Their Robes. Alex Pareene, 20, who has been a guest editor on the New York-based Gawker.com, will join Lat as coeditor.

Cox, 33, became known for her sometimes bawdy musings about goings-on in the nation's capital. Her first novel, "Dog Days," comes out this week, and she recently signed a deal with Riverhead Books for a nonfiction book looking at the next generation of political activists.

Lat is a former assistant federal prosecutor who wrote from the view of a young female lawyer on Underneath Their Robes before he was outed last November.

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Lockhart Steele, managing editor of Gawker Media, Wonkette's publisher, said the popular Web site will be redesigned, but the name will remain unchanged.

"We expect changes to be evolutionary," Steele said, noting that each blogger has his own fixations. "There are tons and tons of areas to explored in Washington, D.C., so there are real opportunities for them."