Rove doesn't care about any of that. That's why he drives the left and the MSM so batty. He really doesn't give a crap about what is written about him or said about him. He can't be mau-maued by nasty stuff in New York Times editorials or Chuck Schumer press conferences. He doesn't frequent the Georgetown cocktail party circuit and could not care less about it. He cares about winning elections and creating a majority Republican Party for the next hundred years, and that's exactly what he is doing. This kerfuffle won't faze him a bit. Joe Wilson isn't even a pimple on his butt.
I think you're right about Rove in the sense that he doesn't care about the Dems sniping at him personally.
However, they aren't after Rove;they're after Dubya and the GOP. Whatever they can do to drive down our popularity in the polls by creating doubts about the Administration's honesty/credibility will help them at the polls.
And in that sense, Rove should be attuned to the fact that Dubya is dropping in the estimation of the general population.