"Nice campaign you have here, ...

"... shame if anything were to happen to it."

That's the essence of this column from Byron York.

York says that the YearlyKOS convention was the blogosphere's coming out party and, as such, it will invite increased media attention of just what has been going out here for the last few years. Which means that we better be prepared for some nasty smears based on blog comments that are now several years old.

Please don't think that York is giving us a friendly warning. No. He's actually eager for it to happen. He's positively shivering in anticipation.

It's actually not much of a threat to bloggers or Markos in particular. York knows that bloggers tend to be made of much tougher stuff than your average politician. Markos has dealt with these smears before and I'm confident he will do fine in the future.

The real threat in York's column is against politicians who might be considering aligning themselves with bloggers.

One theme of coverage of the YearlyKos convention is that Moulitsas and his followers are playing an active role in the 2006 and 2008 campaigns. Left unsaid is whether they will be an asset or a liability for the candidates they support. It seems reasonable to expect that any Democratic candidate who allies himself with Moulitsas, or accepts DailyKos support, will be asked, by Republican opponents, whether he or she endorses some of the things Moulitsas has written and said.

In other words, "If you are seen in public with Markos we will make you eat everything he ever said."

It's the politics of intimidation. This is just the first shot across the bow.