Getting To Know Your New Congressmen: Anh Cao

Cao (pronounced "gow") is 41. He is soft-spoken, with neatly combed, thick black hair. His trade, until recently, was immigration and personal-injury lawyer. He stands just under 5-2. Soaking wet, he might weigh 125 pounds. He is a very good listener. He smiles, but not all the time. He runs five miles every day before dawn.

He is telling this story in his lightly accented English, a reminder that he was airlifted as a child out of Saigon "two or three days" before that city fell to communist forces.

He makes scant mention of other hardships: arriving in Indiana without his parents, a terrified 8-year-old who spoke no English; leaving the seminary in 1996 in a weathered Honda Accord, bound for his sister's house in Falls Church; arriving there with $20 to his name and no prospects save for his faith, determination and intellect. (In this tableau, Hurricane Katrina washing out his New Orleans home with eight feet of water in 2005 is not anything much to discuss.)