I don't think it requires projecting some sort of meta-malevolent brilliance onto Rove to believe that his attacks on Hillary are intended to help her in the primary. Of course that's the goal. To think otherwise is to believe that Rove is dumb enough to not know that his attacks on her help her to brandish her selling point to the base as the experienced partisan fighter. Whether or not he's super-smart, he's not that dumb.