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DU by its nature selects pretty strongly for opinionated people who try to keep ahead of the curve. And most of them expect of Kerry, or whoever they champion or are asked to champion, to be relatively opinionated and publicly hold opinions that are ahead of the curve too.
The idea that this is foolish for a competent politician to do doesn't occur to many. A competent politician always has to create the impression of serving and standing up for his constituents, though, how ever foolish they may be, whereas the average DU pundit sees her/his job in hectoring and lecturing the willing part of the public at large- almost the opposite as responsibility goes.
Finally, being opinionated in a way that seems Democratic (or: is Left) and being a committed liberal with opinions are two different things. It's a traditional division in the Party, and IMHO at present Kerry represents the Liberal First side and Dean/Edwards/Kucinich- and Nader's Greens/Independents- the Left First side.
So that's where we really are: these threats you mention are part of a great infighting for domination of the Party. It should be settled by summer, at which point the can't-we-all-just-get-along approach you champion will become a mantra around here.
The process will amount to the Left firsters claiming the Liberal firsters to be closet Rightists (as Dean has continuously done) and the Liberal firsters will be telling the Left firsters to do something about their flip-flopping Inner Conservative (e.g. on abortion (Kucinich), on race and gay marriage (Dean), on church/state(Edwards)). I can only hope that we emerge more firmly liberal and more intelligently Left as a Party. With the country substantially more more socially liberal (by small majority) than economically liberal (under 40%), the recipe for success seems clear. And the polls show it: Kerry consistently beats Bush, the others don't.
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