Who would suspect Parris Glendening of riding to Spiro Agnew's rescue? Mr. Agnew is a charter member of Maryland's Hall of Shame. While governor, he extorted money from state contractors. Why would a good Democrat like Mr. Glendening resurrect a bad Republican like Mr. Agnew?
Because Mr. Glendening's academic training has taught him an important lesson: You can't rewrite history; you can only learn from it.
A couple decades ago, when the ignominy of the Agnew years and the Mandel corruption trials had reached its nadir, Gov. Harry R. Hughes dispensed with an embarrassing reminder: He removed the Agnew portrait from the State House reception room. In that lineup of Maryland governors, only Ted Agnew's mug was not to be seen. He became this state's missing link.
But now the new governor's sense of propriety has reversed this exercise in denial. The missing portrait is no longer missing.
In fact, Mr. Agnew wasn't a dreadful governor -- except for those white envelopes stuffed with cash. He was one in a long line of moderate and progressive governors this state has had this century.
Maryland has been blessed by a tradition of competence -- and centrism -- in its elected chief executives. Look at the record in the post-war (World War I, that is) era:
Albert C. Ritchie was a superb governor who initiated a slew of progressive legislation, placed the state on a rigidly conservative fiscal track and dominated politics in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Harry W. Nice, an amiable pro-New Deal Republican, couldn't get along with the General Assembly but it didn't matter: Depression-era stimulus actions from Washington superseded state initiatives.
Herbert R. O'Conor proved a progressive wartime governor with that same fiscal conservatism of the Ritchie era. He achieved reforms in the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
Perhaps the most courageous and far-sighted 20th-century governor was William Preston Lane. He dragged Annapolis -- kicking and screaming -- into the modern era. This Democrat poured money into public schools, implemented a five-year $200 million road program, created a junior-college system and rebuilt hospitals for the mentally ill and retarded.
Given the pent-up needs from the war years, Lane proved the right man for the times. But to pay for this necessary spending, he had to impose a sales tax. That two-cent levy sounded Lane's death knell. He took the political bullet for doing the right thing.
Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin was emblematic of the 1950s, an era of prosperity and growing recognition of tolerance. McKeldin, an eloquent speaker who loved mingling with people, used the governorship as a bully pulpit for civil rights. He also proved a pragmatic Republican governor eager to work with the Democratic legislature on social issues.
J. Millard Tawes, a career state functionary from conservative Crisfield, surprisingly became a reform governor responsible for improving roads and bridges and championing progress in economic development, health and the environment.
Spiro T. Agnew, despite his corruption and blunders on civil-rights matters, improved the workings of government, drew up moderately conservative budgets and claimed partial paternity for the Cooper-Hughes-Agnew-Lee income-tax structure still in effect today.
Marvin Mandel, despite his corruption woes, championed dramatic changes: The nation's first state school-construction program; 248 independent agencies shoe-horned into 11 cabinet departments; the nation's first state-run auto-insurance fund for high-risk drivers; a less political process for picking judges; subway systems for the Baltimore and Washington areas. Only Mr. Mandel's favoritism for friends and cronies marred his achievements.
Harry R. Hughes, the anti-corruption governor, often left decisions to the General Assembly. He restored respect to the office and kept state finances under control. He was a quiet reformer and typical of Maryland's middle-road governors. Only the enormity of the savings-and-loan crisis late in his term doomed his political career.
William Donald Schaefer. Say what you will about the man, he revamped higher education, built the nationally famed Camden Yards baseball stadium and guided this state through its worst recession since the 1930s without any lingering harm. His personality quirks irked many Marylanders, but the Schaefer years were in sync with nearly all other 20th-century administrations -- progressive and moderate in their overall impact.
Mr. Glendening gives every sign of sliding neatly into this list. He appears to be both cautious and progressive. He wants to change government's structure to make it more efficient. That's been a byword of most of the state's better chief executives this century.
Does the Agnew portrait deserve to hang in the same room with Maryland's other governors? Yes, but not just to set the record straight. It's important to keep in mind the progressive path nearly all 20th-century chief executives have followed while in office.
Whether Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal in their prior political lives, each one of them steered a middle course. That's been the Maryland tradition. It's what this state's voters have opted for time after time at the polls.
Barry Rascovar is editorial-page director of The Sun.