Suppress Error Messages in Specific Cases

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask because it very could be handled in a different module or in overly specific theme code but here goes...

I built a very small Webform that is rendered as a block that only collects email address in order to subscribe a user into a Simplenews newsletter. I'm doing this in conjunction with Webform Rules and the overall functionality works great. I have one small tweak I'd like to make. I'm using an email component in the Webform and setting it to mandatory, otherwise it's not very useful. I like that the email component already does the email validation but I would like to suppress the actual error message, or perhaps think of a better way of displaying it, since I'm working with a limited space for where the block is being displayed. In my opinion, the default mechanism of highlighting the textfield in red is sufficient enough to convey the user "your input isn't good enough, try again" and I don't need to cram an explanation into my small space.

There is probably disagreement with my idea but it seems like something that could be configured or handled through theme code, I just don't know where to start. The fact that this module is adding another layer around the standard interface makes it that much more interesting. I'm happy to offer a patch if I knew the best way to alter this module or the main Webform to accomplish the task.