I have Rove’s book-—haven’t read it yet-—but I hear he admitted that this was his biggest mistake, in not countering these attacks. But think of some of the junk that other “speechwriters” have put out-—Frum-—or his press secretary (McClellan). These guys probably did have the president’s ear, gave him bad advice, then bailed.
Sure, speechwriters will have the president’s ear. But the intelligence community does as well. And they’re the ones ‘in the know’. Coming from speechwriters, this stuff is all hearsay and intellectual opinion. And as you point out, not a little was bad advice.
But there’s a broader story here than just Rove taking blame for the failure to counter Democrat/MSM disinformation. I simply don’t believe it was just Bush’s political adviser who let the president down on this. And I’m not confining my suspicions to the speechwriter community.