 "The district had been so radically gerrymandered by Republican governors and legislators that it was all but unrecognizable that a Democrat could ever be competitive there" and Hackett, "a smart telegenic Iraq war veteran," had been "swift-boated" in the final days of the campaign by Republican operatives and "right-wing talk hosts" such as Rush Limbaugh.Mark Steyn, a conservative columnist who writes for "National Review" magazine, wrote in the "Irish Times" "Paul Hackett was like a fast-forward version of the John Kerry campaign" who "artfully neglected to mention the candidate was a Democrat.