The ways in which Noah is wrong are hard to count, but I think I can came up with at least eight:

1. It's not "all over." There's this thing called an appeal, and it is still pending. The clemency prevents the process from being completed.

2. The comparison between Libby and the average perjurer is invalid, except that what Libby did was worse. Libby is a lawyer (that is, an officer of the court, and if you think courts don't take that seriously, you're wrong) and a high government official. He was cooperating in the investigation at the direction of his ultimate boss, the President, who claimed he wanted to know the truth. The issue was one of great national importance. The only reasonable thing to expect of him is that he'll tell the truth. That makes his lie much worse than your garden variety perjury, and deserving of more, not less punishment. (The claim that Walton gave Libby a harsher sentence because he was a high government official is right, one of the few things that Noah gets correct, but that's a good thing not a bad thing.)

3. The probation officer did not recommend no sentence, as even Noah agrees, but a sentence of about half what Libby was given. The difference between no jail time and actual jail time was is pretty significant.

4. Libby was not convicted of a single lie or lies about one event, but for multiple lies about two different conversations. This is a systematic, deliberate pattern of falsehood. That's the kind of thing that gets you sent to jail.

5. The sentence that actually was given was in the middle of the sentencing guidelines for the offense. It was not especially severe, and Walton could have given him much more time. This is one reason why the "the judge was annoyed" theory doesn't hold much water.

6. The Clinton case is not remotely comparable. It was not an issue of national importance, there was only one lie, and under the relevant law, it wasn't even perjury because the case was settled before the deposition was ever entered into evidence. And, as an aside, if you've ever read the transcript, you will note that there was considerable confusion about what actually was asked and what Clinton actually meant by his answer. Compare that to Libby confidently asserting - on two separate occasions - that his conversations with Russert and Cooper were completely different than they recalled, and topping that off with the remarkable claim that something he'd been telling other people for weeks suddenly had been forgotten.

7. The conclusion that Libby "probably didn't understand that Plame's identity was a government secret" is something that is impossible to know, let alone prove. Among many, many other things, it is far from crazy to think that the reason he lied is that he thought that revealing her name was a crime. This might, in fact, be the most likely reason.

8. Finally, the idea that what's happened with Libby will let members of the Bush Administration "know that they are not above the law" is laughable. I'd be laughing if it weren't so serious. Libby never was going to practice law again, no matter what happened in the trial, so the loss of his law license isn't that big a deal. He's a hero to the people he cares about, and Bush's clemency validates his heroism to that group. No, the message here is that the President will cover for you if you did the dirty work for him.

Noah's smarter than this, or at least I think he is. It makes you wonder if he just woke up feeling contrary this morning.