Palin praised Pantano in a Facebook note Tuesday:

Ilario Pantano is another dedicated patriot running for Congress this year. Ilario first swore an oath to defend the Constitution as a 17-year-old Marine. Today, he needs your help to bring common sense back to Washington. … We can win this seat and send a decorated Marine to Congress who will be a strong voice for veterans and active-duty military.

And today Giuliani has put out a statement (which, yes, mentions Sept. 11 within just 10 words):

“Ilario Pantano witnessed the terrorists attacks on 9/11, and having already fought one war for his country he felt compelled to re-join the Marines and defend his country a second time. All of us wanted to do what we could, and many talked about it, but Ilario made bold strong decisions to put himself in harm’s way. Time and time again, Ilario Pantano has chosen country before self and that is why I am proud to endorse him for the US Congress.”

Note that Palin and Giuliani are each playing up Pantano’s time in the military. And Democrats remain virtually silent on what Pantano did in Iraq. That’s an inversion of the dynamic an outside observer might expect, but, as a local analyst told us last month, many in the district see Pantano as a hero.

From the announcement of the Pantano fundraiser at Ant Hill Range:

WANTED: Patriots to help Pantano protect the Second Amendment and fire Pelosi and the Liberal Congress!

Come see if you have what it takes to outshoot Pantano, your candidate for the U.S. Congress. Pantano needs your help to fix Washington, so come on out to the social fundraiser for an afternoon of fun, food, and guns!

WHO: Any patriot who thinks they can outshoot their next Congressman

WHAT: A fundraiser pistol match, $25 per entry. Bring your own guns/ammo.

Wired’s Danger Room blog quizzed Pantano, who is in a tight race in North Carolina’s seventh district and hopes to sit on the House Armed Services Committee if elected, on his views about China, Iraq, and Islam.

On China, he thinks that the U.S. should use Afghanistan’s mineral wealth to fund an “exploration race” with China (in space and in the ocean). He in fact wrote a policy paper on the Cuba-China threat titled, “The Cuban Piece in China’s Puzzle: The Second Cuban Missile Crisis (CMC2).”

A couple other interesting tidbits: He refers to the people the U.S. is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as “primitives.”

Folks, one day we’re going to be in a fight with an enemy using [an] EMP [gadget-frying electro-magnetic pulse] and we better remember how to use a compass. We better remember how to use smoke. We better remember how to engage the enemy the old-fashioned way because one day we may lose our strong technical advantage. We certainly found that out as we fought primitives, whether it was in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Also Pantano may have done private contracting work of some kind in Afghanistan (though this does not show up on his campaign bio).

DR: I may be remembering this wrong. But I think you did some security consulting in Afghanistan…

IP: I don’t want to go into detail on that. I just want to say that I’ve been to Afghanistan and I’ve written on some observations on Afghanistan. I don’t want to comment on time spent there.

 Read the whole thing.

As we’ve detailed, Pantano in 2004 shot two unarmed Iraqi prisoners up to 60 times and then placed a sign bearing a Marine slogan next to their bodies. After a hearing on murder charges, military officials agreed with Pantano’s version of events, in which the two men made a hostile move toward him.

The term “push poll” is often misused, but what is being reported in North Carolina actually hews to the industry definition — negative campaigning disguised as a genuine poll:

They then ask who the voter will be supporting in the upcoming election between McIntyre and Pantano. If the voter indicates they are supporting Pantano – the call then turns. With the sound of a boiler room operation in the background as described by the angry voters receiving the calls, the voter is then asked politely if they were more likely to vote for Pantano if they knew that he had been accused of murder …  They also ask if they were more likely to vote for Pantano if they knew he once worked for Goldman Sachs (he was a trader there years ago and was not in management).

The tele-marketer then switches to questions about McIntyre. Naturally, the questions are flattering toward the Congressman. They ask if the voter would be more likely to vote for McIntyre if they knew he saved Social Security for seniors, for example.

The GOP is blaming the campaign of Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., for the calls, but there is no evidence for that. The state Democratic Party or some outside group could just as easily be responsible. (The McIntyre camp has not responded to a call.)

McIntyre has been careful not to attack Pantano on the Iraq killings issue, at least in any way that can be linked to his campaign.

In a Facebook message, Pantano told his supporters: “McIntyre has started running a very nasty, very negative push poll. … We are beginning to see how the big boys spend their money on job security. Everyone spread the word to our army to always remain patient and respect.”

Perhaps fearing a backlash in a district with a sizable ex-military population, Pantano’s Democratic opponent has so far not made an issue of the murder case.

But now, a transcript of the hearing in which the the murder charges were aired in 2005 has been posted by an anonymous anti-Pantano blog. (Read it in full below.) The nearly 800-page document offers dramatic details about the case, and paints an often brutal picture of the Iraq War.

The release of the transcript comes as Pantano is facing renewed criticism of his past — from the right. Deborah Johns, a former vice chair of Tea Party Express and an ally of a candidate Pantano beat in the GOP primary, this week endorsed Pantano’s Democratic opponent, citing concerns about Pantano’s war record. Johns, whose son is a Marine who served in Iraq, told Salon that reading the transcript of the hearing in the murder case convinced her that she could not support Pantano.

“I understand war is a dirty, ugly thing, I get that,” she said. “But I sat there sickened” reading the transcript.

Here’s a sample of the prosecutor’s closing statement:  

And from Pantano’s attorney’s closing:

Among the other interesting details: Pantano’s attorney questions the credibility of an unfriendly witness by raising his role in an incident in which dogs were beaten to death with baseball bats on a military base in Iraq.

It’s a fascinating primary document about a man who may well be a member of Congress come January. Here it is:

Pantano Article 32 Transcript