With Congress in disarray as the GOP searches for a viable Speaker, pressure is growing on Paul Ryan (R-WI) to step into the race. Ryan, currently the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has said he's not interested in the role but the threat of disorder in the House may convince him to reconsider.
Here are some of the reasons Ryan might make a good Speaker:
1) He has the strength. P90X, a video workout program from Beachbody, is a Ryan favorite. The company’s co-founder and president, Jon Congdon, said that when Mitt Romney chose Ryan as his running mate back in 2012, traffic to the workout program’s website doubled.
2) He doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. Ryan is described as an avid hunter and fisherman who does his own skinning and butchering.
3) He can “channel his inner redneck,” which fellow Republicans “like,” according to Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona. That includes fishing “for catfish with his bare hands.”
4) He knows the institution. Ryan got his start on Capitol Hill as a 19-year-old sorting letters from constituents for Sen. Bob Kasten (R-Wisc.). By his mid-20s, he began seeking advice about running for congress while working as a speechwriter and researcher for former congressman and GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp at a conservative think tank, Empower America.
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5) He wants to improve the nation's economy. When Ryan gave a commencement address at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, the school he graduated from in 1992 with a double major in economics and political science, he said his economics professor, Rich Hart, "provided a vision quest in my mind to improve the economy of our nation.”
6) He knows when to compromise. The reason Ryan voted for the TARP program, according to Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and co-director of Empower America, where Ryan once worked: “He has strong beliefs, but he’s driven by data. Paul knew without TARP in 2008, we would descend into another Great Depression, and I still think he did the right thing by voting for it.” Ryan is on record as saying that although TARP was against his principles, he stood in support of it “to save” the free-market system.
7) He has family support. In keeping with his love of the outdoors, Ryan asked his wife, Janna Little, to marry him at Big St. Germain Lake in northern Wisconsin, “one of his favorite fishing spots.” They were married in December 2000, in Oklahoma City. She graduated from Wellesley College and George Washington University Law School. The Ryans have three children.
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8) He’s objective -- or at least he's a fan of Ayn Rand and objectivism. Although he has distanced himself from Rand's work lately, he has given copies of "Atlas Shrugged" to his interns. Rand's philosophy is popular among Republicans, and even a few Democrats.
9) He's efficient. Ryan sometimes sleeps in his congressional office to be closer to the Capitol Hill gym so he can wedge in an early-morning workout with other fitness-minded and buff congressmen.
10) He has big goals. A self-styled policy wonk, Ryan has long aspired to lead a wholesale legislative revision of the federal tax code. Although his current position as chair of the Ways and Means Committee is the ideal place to make that happen, he would continue to have enormous influence over any tax deals as Speaker.
