Michael Olesker, The Examiner
2008-01-08 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Here’s one for the Great Legacy Department: Twenty years after he left office, the State Highway Administration honors Harry Hughes. They’ve named a rest stop on Interstate 95 for him.

A rest stop? Hughes was a two-term governor of Maryland and one of the great champions of the Chesapeake Bay.

A rest stop? Before becoming governor, he served in the General Assembly and then became the state’s first secretary of transportation, overseeing the opening of I-95 between the Baltimore and Washington beltways.

So they honor him with a rest stop?

“Yes,” says a delighted Charlie Gischlar, spokesman for the State Highway Administration.

“Isn’t that a little tacky for honoring a former governor?” Gischlar is asked.

“Well,” says Gischlar, “it’s a welcome center.”

And what do they have at the welcome center?

“I don’t know,” says Gischlar. “I’ve never been there.”

So we head for the State Highway Administration Web site, on which we find all sorts of locations listed under Maryland Welcome Centers and Rest Areas.

There’s Garrett County’s Youghiougheny Overlook Welcome Center, which boasts of “an outstanding view of the Youghiougheny reservoir.” There’s Washington County’s Sideling Hill Center, with its “spectacular views.”

Then there’s the I-95 Welcome Center in Howard County. That’s the one they named for Hughes on Monday. Its singular proud boast is that it “serves traffic heading toward Washington, D.C., and points south and … traffic heading toward the Baltimore/Annapolis area and points north.”

So, having no clearer picture of the truly proud delights of this particular rest stop, we phone the place and talk to an employee who does not wish her name in the newspaper.

“What, exactly, do you have at the rest stop?” she is asked.

“Restroom facilities,” she says. And? “A place where you can get maps.” How about food? “No.” Gas? “No.” Souvenirs? “No.” So it’s essentially a place to go to the lavatory? “Yes. And get a map.”

And this is how we honor a former governor?

What are we supposed to do, invade the men’s room and declare, “This one’s for you, Harry”?

He deserves better.

Born in Easton, Hughes attended Caroline County public schools, then served in the U.S. Navy air corps during World War II. He came home and graduated from the University of Maryland and George Washington University Law School, married and had a couple of daughters and played in the Eastern Shore Baseball League.

He spent four years as chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee and 16 years representing the Eastern Shore in the General Assembly before taking over as the state’s first secretary of transportation.

Then he quit. Everybody thought his political career was over, and suddenly, there he was, running for governor. And, against all odds, winning two terms in office, from 1979 to 1987.

But he wasn’t just governor — he’s the patron saint of all political lost causes in Maryland. Remember when he ran for governor? His poll numbers were so low that former Sen. Harry “Soft Shoes” McGuirk called Hughes “a lost ball in high grass.”

But he came from nowhere to claim the most astonishing come-from-behind victory in modern Maryland politics.

Highway spokesman Gischlar says naming the rest stop for Hughes is part of the state’s celebration of 100 years of modern road building.

So they can’t find an entire road somewhere that they can name for Hughes? We did it for Gladys Noon Spellman.

Or a bridge? We did it for William Preston Lane.

Or a building? We’ve named a bunch of them for William Donald Schaefer, and not one of them has lavatories as its proudest amenity (even though the symbolism would be fine for a man who once famously described an entire section of the state as “an outhouse.”)

Honoring former leaders should have meaning and capture some of the true glory of the individual’s legacy.

For instance, name a prison wing for Spiro Agnew.

Or name a slots parlor for Robert Ehrlich, who bogged himself down spending four years believing this would be a swell legacy for a governor.

For Harry Hughes, how about naming some Eastern Shore area overlooking a graceful marshy area? Now Hughes would no longer be the lost ball. He’d represent the high grass.

Or, how about this? As governor, he signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement, to protect the Bay from pollution and excessive hunting.

Can’t we honor him by somehow connecting him with that great body of water? Anything else leaves us feeling less than flush.

Please send news tips to Michael Olesker at olesker@baltimoreexaminer.com