Under-Performer v. Over-Killer

A whole long article in today's N&O about how Congressman Mike McIntyre (on the left in these photos) of the NC-7 may well go down in this election to Republican tea partier Ilario Pantano (on the right), and not one word among the reasons given for why he may crash&burn gets devoted to the fact that McIntyre lost his Democratic base. Lost it good by voting repeatedly and almost dependably with the Republicans in the last Congress. Not one word about that -- the whereabouts of McIntyre's Democratic base.

Some interesting words, however, about Ilario Pantano, the ex-Marine who was court-martialed (though not convicted) of murdering two unarmed Iraqi civilians. The stipulated facts of that case give one pause. Though Pantano escaped the murder charge, the presiding judge at his court-martial concluded that Pantano had used "poor judgment and recommended he be punished for desecrating the corpses."

"Desecrating the corpses"? We reckon the presiding officer was referring to the fact that Pantano emptied a "full magazine of about 30 bullets" into the victims and "then loaded a fresh magazine and emptied that one, too. Then he hung a sign on the bullet riddled car that read 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.' "

Seems like Congressional material to us.