Getting To Know Your New Congressmen: Anh Cao

Since the election most -- okay, all -- of the nation's attention has been focused on the president-elect. But let's not forget that next year we'll have a new Congress filled with plenty of fresh faces with fascinating (and not-so-fascinating) stories. Today the Washington Post introduces us to one of the fascinating ones: Anh "Joseph" Cao. The Kierkegaard-quoting former seminarian was airlifted out of Vietnam during the war and is today the new representative from New Orleans. Cao is the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress and the first Republican to win Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District in over a century.

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.)

Cao beat indicted Congressman William Jefferson, the guy with all the cash in his freezer.

Read the whole thing here. It's a pretty inspiring story of the American dream fulfilled.