That's the impression of the characters in book 5, but the end of book 4 pretty clearly shows that Fudge's impressions of Harry were guided by Skeeter, not the other way around.

"You are prepared to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, on the word of a lunatic murderer, and a boy who… well…"

Fudge shot Harry another look, and Harry suddenly understood.

"You've been reading Rita Skeeter, Mr. Fudge," he said quietly.

...

Fudge reddened slightly, but a defiant and obstinate look came over his face.

"And if I have?" he said, looking at Dumbledore. "If I have discovered that you've been keeping certain facts about the boy very quiet? A Parselmouth, eh? And having funny turns all over the place -"

As for what you said about Lucius being a shoddy plotter--well, he did fail in CoS, so you could make an argument to that opinion. But look at it from another point of view.

• Through an excessive amount of force --an admittedly stupid move which did get him kicked off of the Board eventually--he got Dumbledore removed as Headmaster, and if Harry hadn't triumphed against ridiculous odds, it likely would have stuck.

• If Ginny had been caught releasing the Basilisk, Arthur is discredited, which would reverse those irritating acts that he was (somehow) making into law.

• If Ginny fails to be saved, then either she gets blamed for everything and Arthur is discredited or she is taken to be another victim; either way and she would be dead, which is icing on the Flawless Instrument of Death's cake.

• If Ginny is saved but people don't believe her about the diary controlling her actions (remember, Dumbledore was supposed to be gone), then Arthur is discredited.

• We don't know too much about how much Lucius knew about the diary, but he might have known that it would have targeted Harry, which would have been quite the coup.

• If the diary would have escaped, I would argue that Voldemort would get something out of it; perhaps the life stolen from Ginny could have been given to Voldemort's shade?

• None of this mentions the fact that many mudbloods were supposed to die, which he would consider to be a good thing, at least.

Lucius did not succeed in CoS--at all, really, besides temporarily removing the headmaster--but that doesn't mean he wasn't planning to get anything out of it.