Kos and ABC’s Tapper get into it over Iraq story

Markos Moulitsas (a.k.a., “kos” of the liberal blog Daily Kos) accused ABC White house correspondent Jake Tapper of carrying water for conservatives in his story about President Obama’s trip to Iraq, only to have Tapper hit back.

Kos tweeted:

@jaketapper, The fictional Obama quote is fantastic Drudge bait! The right-wingers love it! http://bit.ly/hhEB2

At issue was the headline on Tapper’s story about the surprise Obama visit, which originally quoted Obama as having apologized to Europe for his predecessor’s time in office. (The story has now been updated to remove the quotes, with an asterisk added saying they were mistakenly inserted.)

Nonetheless, Tapper — a frequent Twitter user — fired back at Moulitsas:

@markosmoulistas that was changed, it was an editing error. Do you not think Obama should have expressed regret 4 the Bush years?

Tapper then followed up:

@markosmoulitsas I’m not saying he was wrong for continually expressing regret-i would think u would think it was right/smart

Tapper has been of a whipping boy of the press corps for liberals, who have accused him of being too friendly to conservatives. Tapper was the subject of a complimentary profile by National Review Online, a conservative web magazine, yesterday.