Meet the Lawmaker

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)
Time in Congress: 3 years 
Residence: Niles, Ohio
Marital Status: Divorced 
Age: 33

What is something no one knows about you?
Ryan: I want to coach a college basketball team to the Final Four. Maybe Georgetown or somewhere in my district. You know, someone who’s an underdog.

What is the best and worst thing about Washington?
Ryan: The best is the international flavor and the diversity. The worst? That there’s too much power here and power brings out sometimes the worst in us.

What is your favorite meal?
Ryan: Pasta — raviolis with my Grandmother Rizzi’s sauce.

How many autographs do you sign?
Ryan: Oh, I don’t know, a few hundred when you go to the schools and talk to the kids. One wants one and then they all do.

What is your favorite political movie?
Ryan: “Bullworth.” It’s hysterical, and it educates about the system in a funny way.

What did you want to be when you were little?
Ryan: An NFL quarterback.

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with someone, who would it be?
Ryan: Well, obviously you’d like to be on the island with a woman. There is no good answer to that. Can I come back to that?
[A little while later …]
If I had to go male it would be [Rep.] Kendrick Meek [D-Fla.] because I would just love to be with him. If it were a female it would have to be [Rep.] Mary Bono [R-Calif.].

Any reason?
Ryan: [Laughter, then a pause] No.

What is your biggest political mistake?
Ryan: I don’t think of things in terms of mistakes because you look back on them and they end up helping you. A lot of the campaign-finance stuff I made some mistakes on.

Are you morally opposed to premarital sex?
Ryan: I am not. Everyone can do what they want as long as it’s, you know, safe. [After coming back to the question] My Christian faith teaches you not to judge.