Here are The Washington Examiner's endorsements for local congressional races in Maryland:

4th District: No endorsement. Former Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn Ivey was an outstanding prosecutor who would have made an equally fine congressman. But Ivey was forced to drop his primary challenge for financial reasons after Democratic incumbent Rep. Donna Edwards was bankrolled by the big labor unions and ultra-liberal groups that currently run Maryland. With Ivey off the ballot, residents of the nation's most affluent minority-majority county are the real losers.

6th District: Democrats in Annapolis, led by Gov. Martin O'Malley, admit that their main goal in turning Maryland's congressional districts into incomprehensible blobs was to defeat 10-term incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, one of two Republicans representing Maryland in Congress. The Examiner endorses Bartlett, even though the Democratic gerrymander has prompted some to call him the nation's "most endangered" GOP incumbent.

O'Malley intended to hand Bartlett's seat to his political crony, Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola. That plan was foiled when Democratic businessman John Delaney upset Garagiola in the primary. But sending Delaney to Congress would still reward Democrats for making Maryland's map into a geometrically offensive laughingstock.

8th District: Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D, defeated moderate Republican Connie Morella in 2002 partially due to the fact that Maryland's 2000 redistricting gave him a 3-1 advantage in the 8th District. This time, however, Van Hollen got the short end of the redistricting pen, prompting an angry outburst at O'Malley this summer. The newly redrawn 8th District includes parts of rural Frederick and Carroll counties. Voter registration is 50.7 percent Democrat and 49.3 percent Republican. This gives Ken Timmerman, an extremely credible Republican challenger, better odds of picking off one of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's top lieutenants than one might otherwise expect.

A former president of the Maryland Taxpayers Association, Timmerman was the lead investigator for 9/11 families in their civil lawsuit against Iran. Thanks to the evidence trail he uncovered, a federal judge in New York ruled last year that Iran has "shared responsibility" with al Qaeda for the bloodiest attack on U.S. soil. Timmerman was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, for helping expose Iran's nuclear weapons program. The Examiner endorses Timmerman for the same reason Van Hollen has been dodging debates with him: He is articulate, cosmopolitan and courageous -- the real deal.