trouble with on insert rule via libpg-perl

I have a simple table, a view, and an on insert rule.  These work fine,
ordinarily.  But when I attempt to to insert a value into thesis_ps_v
via libpq_sql, nothing happens.  If I capture the sql string I'm sending
(as per code sample below), print it to a file, and paste it into a psql
session, it works fine.  If I use the same perl code (with the minor
required modifications to the sql string) to insert rows directly into
the the table, that works fine also.  I've included the relevant tables
and perl code below.

######################################################################

CREATE TABLE thesis (
  thesis_sha1
    BYTEA
    NOT NULL,
  ps
    BYTEA
    NOT NULL,
  id
    INTEGER
    DEFAULT nextval( 'thesis_id_seq' )
    PRIMARY KEY
);

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX
  thesis__sha1_ndx
ON
  thesis( thesis_sha1 );

CREATE VIEW
  thesis_ps_v
AS
  SELECT
    ps
  FROM
    thesis;

CREATE RULE thesis_ps_v_insert AS
ON INSERT TO thesis_ps_v
DO INSTEAD
    INSERT INTO thesis ( thesis_sha1, ps )
    VALUES ( digest( new.ps, 'sha1' ), new.ps );

######################################################################

sub upload_val ($) {
    my( $octstr_ref ) = @_;

    my $sqlstr = <<EOSQL;
INSERT INTO
    thesis.thesis_ps_v( ps )
VALUES
    ( \'$$octstr_ref\' );
EOSQL

   open( TEST, ">/secure/tmpdir/test.out" );
   print TEST "\n\n$sqlstr\n\n";
   close( TEST );

    my $result = $CONN->exec( $sqlstr );
    my $status = $result->resultStatus;
    my $oid = $result->cmdTuples;

    if( $CONN->errorMessage &&
        ! ( $oid eq "" || $status eq PGRES_COMMAND_OK ) ) {
        print STDERR sprintf( 'SQL exec failed: %s',
                              $CONN->errorMessage ), "\n";
    }
}

--
Ron Peterson
Network & Systems Manager
Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~rpeterso