This didn't happen to Spiro T. Agnew, Nixon's running-mate, point-man and official bully. By the time he passed on, he had been all but forgotten by the American people, but here in Maryland, there are many who remember him.

But not, we believe, very fondly.

Spiro Agnew was the Republican Governor of Maryland when he was selected to be Nixon's Vice Presidential candidate. The Republicans chose Agnew because he had made an art form of attacking the news media and those who were opposed to the War in Viet Nam.

He did his job well. He believed that the news media were "a small and unelected elite" whose liberal views distorted all political news coverage.

Perhaps Agnew's greatest contribution was his discovery of what he called "the vast, silent majority" of Americans who agreed with him and his corrupt masters.

This "silent majority" isn't silent anymore, it's the "Moral Majority" now. It has its own cable channels, and spokesmen like Pat Robertson. But when it comes to opportunity for the disadvantaged, health-care for the poor and rights for non-whites, gays, and women... it still doesn't have a lot to say.

But if the silent majority is still with us, then so should be the memory of the man who gave it a voice, even if it was little more than ventriloquism.

Historical revisionism is a strange animal. In the Maryland Governor's Reception Room, the walls are lined with portraits of former Governors, all except Agnew.

Marvin Mandel is there, whose conviction for mail-fraud and racketeering was recently overturned, although he served time in the federal pen. But no Agnew.

We think it should be there. Agnew was a son-of-a-bitch, but he was OUR son-of-a-bitch, an elected Governor, and a part of Maryland history.

If he had not been investigated and indicted for payoffs he recieved as County Executive and as Governor, he could have become President instead of Gerald Ford, and would likely have been the first President to order the bombing of an American city. (We think he would have bombed Berkley first, then Boston.)

If Nixon got a Library, then Agnew's portrait ought to be hanging up there with the rest of Maryland's Governors, good and bad. There's no point in pretending he never existed.