Rove is one of my favourite American political spinners. He's good.
He's like Earnhardt was to to NASCAR. He'll put somebody into the wall to win, or to finish 32nd instead of 33rd. He knows exactly what his job is and how to do it.
Watching him in action is like watching Earnhardt too. You can see the wrecks, and you hear the guys saying that he did it and it was dirty, and you know that he did and you know that nobody can prove much, and you know damned well that they should have known he was going to do that, and you know that he won't get more than a dirty look for punishment.
Earnhardt's spine was ripped out of the base of his brain a few years ago at Daytona. He was blocking (a fair bit less than honest racing) for his son and his son's team-mate. He picked up some weird air and hit the wall. It looked like a routine wreck until the looks on the track workers faces showed up on the screen. Earnhardt was dead.
I think this thing with Rove looks much the same. He was just doing his job, which required him to be dishonest. Karl Rove has a basal skull fracture and hasn't figured it out yet.