Rove's comments were very carefully phrased. He wasn't openly thanking the Swiftvets or crediting them with Bush's victory. He was simply offering a political observation to the effect that they did have an influence.
That's all you're ever going to get out of Rove or any other official from the Bush campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans were an independent 527 organization which did not act in concert with the Bush campaign, and the Bush campaign will never suggest anything to the contrary.
Nor would the Swiftvets want the Bush campaign to claim otherwise. The Swiftvets maintained all along that their objective was to keep Kerry out of the White House, not to re-elect Bush.
"Rove's comments were very carefully phrased. He wasn't openly thanking the Swiftvets or crediting them with Bush's victory. He was simply offering a political observation to the effect that they did have an influence."
This is where he hit a home run!
"Rove recalled that his uncle had done several tours of duty in Vietnam. "I've never been able to think of Colonel Verhi as somebody who would have 'raped and pillaged in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan,'" a reference to Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony where he accused Vietnam veterans of committing widespread atrocities."
He dared to call Hanoi Kerry's 1971 a farce and a disgrace.
Not even the media is willing to do that.