To Be or not to Besmirch

I have been giving this a lot of thought. You see, Besmirch and Smirch are synonyms, yet smirch is a transitive verb. So that means that you can besmirch someone, but not smirch them. Of course, after you besmirch them they can say they have been smirched, or even besmirched.

Makes perfect sense, right?! (stop smirking!)