US lawmaker who revealed Imelda's 3K pairs of shoes dies at 70

(Updated 3:48 p.m.) A US Democratic congressman who revealed to the world in 1986 that former First Lady Imelda Marcos had 3,000 pairs of shoes, died on Monday, the New York (NY) Times reported. Stephen J. Solarz, a nine-term Democratic congressman who devoted himself to US foreign policy issues, died of esophageal cancer at a Washington Hospital. He was 70 and lived in McLean, Virginia, the NY Times report said. Solarz's concerns as a lawmaker "ranged beyond traffic lights and beach erosion in his Brooklyn district to nuclear weapons, the Middle East and his revelation that Imelda Marcos owned 3,000 pairs of shoes," the report said. Solarz's zeal for building democracy in other countries brought him to the Philippines at a time when opposition to then-President Ferdinand Marcos was peaking, testing his regime's relationship with the US government. In the Philippines, Malacañang said it was mourning the death of Solarz, who was described as a "true friend" of the country. "Solarz fought for democracy in the Philippines during the dark days of martial law even when his own government's policy was to support the Marcos regime," said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. Imelda's shoes In the 1986 congressional hearings on the Philippines, Solarz provided "irrefutable evidence that President Ferdinand Marcos was misusing foreign aid, leading to the uncovering of the vast United States real estate empire he shared with his wife, Imelda — and his blockbuster disclosure about her shoes," the report said. Robert Dallek, US presidential historian, praised Solarz’s commitment to building democracy in places like South Korea, Lebanon and Taiwan. The report said Solarz visited more than 100 countries, earning him the nickname "Marco Polo" of the US Congress. “I was elected to Congress at precisely the moment in American history when Congress decided it would no longer abdicate its constitutional authority for foreign policy to an executive branch that had lost its claim to presidential infallibility," Solarz wrote in his preface to “Journeys to War and Peace: A Congressional Memoir," to be published in 2011. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist who studies the US Congress, wrote in the introduction to the memoir that he views Mr. Solarz’s foreign policy influence as unique for a House member: “I have often marveled myself at the sweep and depth of the role Solarz was able to play." The report said Solarz’s early battles included an unsuccessful effort to stop the Jimmy Carter administration’s sale of F-15 jets to Saudi Arabia in 1978. In 1979, Solarz was named chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s African subcommittee and worked with President Carter to thwart the lifting of sanctions against Rhodesia for its racist policies. "In 1981, he gave up the African subcommittee to take over the subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs. There he developed a peace plan that helped end the genocide in Cambodia," the report said. "He returned from his 1980 visit to North Korea with the news that that country’s dictator, Kim Il-sung, was interested in improving relations with the United States," the report added. — LBG/VVP/HS/RSJ, GMANews.TV