Daily Kos creator Markos Moulitsas is furious at Sen. Barack Obama for this statement:

If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker “wants to play chicken with our troops,” Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.

He calls it a surrender. While that’s a bit hyperbolic,Obama’s comment is just what the White House wants to hear. They can swat down the upcoming funding bill with a veto, mock the heck out of all the pork in it, and then bring up Gates and Petraeus to talk about how it is not helpful to set a withdrawal timeline during the surge. (Then again, how much faith do any of us have in the Bush administration’s ability to win a public opinion battle on anything?)

And Kos is actually right – Obama using the phrase “playing chicken with our troops” ensures this will be the new talking point, as in, “Even Senator Obama has said that Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid’s decision to risk a veto amounts to playing chicken with our troops.”

Also note that according to other posts, it appears the proprietor of Daily Kos will become a father in the near future. Congratulations to the Moulitsas family — it will be interesting to see if fatherhood alters the tone of Daily Kos.

“I told you posters not to type the F-word in front of my child!”

UPDATE: I’m informed that this is the second child in the Moulitsas family; I guess we won’t be seeing a kindler and gentler Daddy Kos.