G. Solomon, 71; Firebrand Congressman

Retired U.S. Rep. Gerald Solomon died Friday from congestive heart failure at his home in upstate New York. He was 71.

The firebrand conservative retired from the House in 1998.

“Nobody exemplified the spirit of America better than Jerry Solomon,” House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Friday. “Nobody loved America more than Jerry Solomon. And nobody was willing to fight harder for freedom than Jerry Solomon.”

Solomon, recognizable by his trademark crew cut, was chairman of the powerful Rules Committee.

The tough-talking ex-Marine retired to spend more time with his wife, Freda, and family, but he kept a hand in Washington with a lobbying practice. He later said one of the chief reasons he quit Congress was to build up a substantial estate for his children and grandchildren. General Electric became one of his clients.

He represented a conservative, rural eastern New York district, serving six years in the state Legislature before his 1978 election to the House of Representatives.

A favorite cause was a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning.

He was also an outspoken opponent of gun control, and in 1996 challenged Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) to “step outside” during a debate on the federal ban on assault weapons.

“My wife lives alone five days a week in a rural area in upstate New York,” he told Kennedy. “She has a right to defend herself when I’m not there, son. And don’t you ever forget it.”

“He was devoted to conservative principles and philosophies, the first of which was to see to it that this nation was adequately prepared to defend itself and its citizens,” said former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, a fellow New York Republican.

Solomon once apologized for saying on the House floor that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan “ought to be horsewhipped” for allegedly siding with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein over the interests of the United States. Some black members of Congress said the remark evoked images of slavery.

On the day he announced his retirement, he apologized for losing his temper with Kennedy. But he did not apologize for his plain-talking style. Suggesting that many politicians “lick their fingers and see where the wind is blowing,” he told the New York Times, “I just don’t believe in hiding your feelings. . . . If you believe somebody ought to be horsewhipped, you should say it.”

He was one of the staunchest defenders of veterans benefits programs on Capitol Hill and was at the forefront of congressional campaigns to block normalization of trade relations with China after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Many of his legislative achievements dealt with punishing drug abusers and those who flouted their military obligations, such as a successful amendment in the 1980s to cut off college aid for young men who avoided the draft.

He tended carefully to the interests of his district, protecting dairy farmers among others, and was reelected by large margins.

Born in Okeechobee, Fla., Solomon grew up in Glens Falls, N.Y., north of Albany. He left college to enroll in the Marine Corps when the Korean War began.

The co-founder of an insurance and investment firm, he settled in Queensbury and began his political career in 1968 with a successful run for town supervisor there.