By Stephanie Griffith (AFP)
WASHINGTON People in Washington know Paul Ryan as a number-crunching budget hawk who has been leading a ruthless crusade in Congress to rein in government spending and slash the deficit.
They are less familiar with the other Paul Ryan : the Irish-Catholic backwoods boy from Janesville, Wisconsin who hunts with a bow and whose favorite pastime is "noodling" hunting catfish with his bare hands.
Ryan, 42, was tapped in August to be former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's running mate in the Republican bid to unseat President Barack Obama and reclaim the White House.
Despite working for most of his adult life in the US capital, Ryan played up his country boy appeal at a Wisconsin homecoming rally after well-to-do Romney selected him for the ticket.
"My veins run with cheese, bratwurst, a little Spotted Cow, Leinie's and some Miller," he said, rattling off the names of favorite local beers.
"I like to hunt here, I like to fish here, I like to snowmobile here. I even think ice fishing is interesting."
Ryan is a fifth generation resident of Janesville, and while he comes from a prominent family that has run a construction company for decades, he has lived there all his life and continues to reside on the street where he grew up.
A devout Roman Catholic, his immigrant ancestors fled the Irish potato famine in the 1850s and settled in Wisconsin.
Since his nomination, the Romney campaign has played up Ryan's blue-collar Midwestern outdoorsman roots and his hard-scrabble childhood scarred by the death of his father when he was just 16 years old.
But there's a side of Ryan that few Americans have known assuming they knew much at all about the intense, policy-wonk lawmaker.
He also is an avid fitness devotee, and has led a class of like-minded exercise buffs in a grueling workout in Congress where he chairs the House of Representatives budget committee.
Lean and toned, shirtless photos of the seven-term congressman's sculpted physique and six-pack abs have circulated the Internet.
Inside the Beltway, Ryan has come to be known for his proposal to overhaul the federal budget. Critics allege it would decimate social welfare programs, especially Medicare health coverage for the elderly.
As a sign of just how devoted he is to thrift, Ryan is said to sleep on a couch in his congressional office, rather than renting a Washington house or apartment as most lawmakers do.
The death of Ryan's father turned the then-teenager into an introspective, serious student who held odd jobs, joined the Latin and history clubs in school and became versed in supply-side economics.
He pored over books by libertarian icon Ayn Rand, who was one of his biggest inspirations, but has distanced himself more recently from her writings in light of how the late author was a convinced atheist.
In the 1990s, Ryan's pluck, determination and understanding of economic issues helped him ascend the Washington power ladder.
He moved quickly from lowly staffer jobs to speech writer for revered Republican Jack Kemp himself a vice presidential hopeful in 1996 and then became an aide to senator Sam Brownback.
"There are people in Washington who when you meet them you know they are headed for something big," Brian Hart, who worked with Ryan in Brownback's office, told The New York Times. "That was Paul."
In 1998, at age 28, he was elected to Congress, and again rose quickly through the ranks. By 2004 he set about trying to privatize Social Security, the government safety net for retirees. While his bid stalled, it presaged the caustic debates over entitlement programs that were to follow.
Ryan's wife, Janna, comes from a long line of Democratic royalty, but being from opposing political camps turned out not to be an impediment to love and marriage for the pair. She gave up a promising career as an attorney to raise their young children Elizabeth, Charles and Samuel.
Asked what Romney should know about her husband, Janna told People magazine: "You know, he's pretty low-maintenance."
"Paul is someone who goes with the flow and has one of the sunniest demeanors and most positive outlooks of anyone I've ever met. So I'd say Mitt'll probably have a lot of fun with him."
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