"The perjury trap"

Shorter Michael Kinsley: It's the reporters' fault for listening to Libby.

Actually, I have no idea what Kinsley's point is; he seems to be equating the trap Clinton's pursuers put him in -- lie and expose himself to perjury charges, or tell the truth and embarrass his family because of a sexual indiscretion -- and the "trap" Libby found himself in -- lie and expose himself to perjury charges or tell the truth and expose his boss's campaign to destroy an administration critic.

Um, right, Michael. Very Broderesque.

But the op ed piece is written in Kinsley's breezy style and there are moments of great levity:

On Tuesday, President Bush commuted the sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, who was convicted of lying to investigators about the C.I.A. leak case. Mr. Libby will escape prison, but he won’t get away scot-free either. He faces a fine of $250,000 and two years of probation, and if he was thinking of cashing in big on K Street like so many of his administration colleagues, he had better think again.

Well, except that the lobbying firms are not exclusively hiring Republican operatives anymore, I don't quite see what Kinsey bases this claim on. There's always plenty of opportunities for Republicans to "get back on their feet," whether they be criminals or just criminally stupid.