How serious is the split in the Democratic Party over the ObamaCare compromise that leaves progressives without a fig leaf? Howard Dean has gone on national TV for three days in a row demanding that his allies in the Democratic Party defeat the bill and force Barack Obama and the White House to start over from scratch. Joe Scarborough managed to get both Dean and David Axelrod on his show today to get both sides of the (Democratic) story. First, Axelrod says the Left would be “insane” to kill ObamaCare now:

Trying to stave off a sudden fusillade from the left, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Thursday that Howard Dean’s criticisms of health-care reform are “predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions” and that for progressives to torpedo the legislation “would be a tragic, tragic outcome.”

“To defeat a bill that will bend the curve on this inexorable rise in health-care costs is insane,” Axelrod said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I don’t think that you want this moment to pass. It will not come back.” …

Axelrod, responding on MSNBC, said: “I have a lot of respect for Governor Dean but he got on the phone with Nancy-Ann DeParle, our point person on the health care issue, went through point by point. She explained why he was wrong. And he simply didn’t want to hear that critique. I saw his piece in The Post this morning, and it is predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions.”

Former DNC chair Dean, unperturbed by accusations of either the insanity or intransigence, insisted that he remains a loyal — if unenthusiastic — Democrat (via The College Politico):

Look, every politician says this, and I hesitate to do it because they all say it, but sometimes the country is more important than either party. I’m going to support President Obama when he runs for re-election — not vigorously. I’m going to vote for him. [Laughter from Scarborough] I am, I am.

Peggy Noonan observed that the White House has managed a trifecta on ObamaCare by alienating the Right, the Center, and now the Left. Dean won’t be the only one who has lost his enthusiasm for Obama by 2012.