For decades, the map of the sixth congressional district in Maryland.

It looked basically the same.

Some years it got a little longer, some years it got a little fatter.

It was made up mostly of these Appalachian counties, parts of the state that are between

Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

But in 2013, this map changed.

I was actually kind of examining it yesterday while I was writing my piece trying to think

of a colorful description of it.

I asked late's marches of stern to try describing it.

To me, it looks a little bit like an upside down crown that's being melted away on one end.

When I look at the map, it's like half of the district crumpled up on itself.

So now there's this dangling bit that sort of hangs down towards the DC suburbs.

I think another description could be like a hideously deformed salamander, which was the original

animal that inspired the term gerrymandering.

So that's historically apt.

It looks like a mess.

That's what it looks like.

It pulls together these very rural, Republican counties way out in the west of Maryland,

the border, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and ties them together with these very wealthy,

liberal Washington DC suburbs.

Constructing a congressional district like this one is what politicians do, splicing away

at maps to create these islands of invincibility, where political parties can pretty much predict

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