Paper, Times you said, probing legislator's muddles (3-3)

'muddles' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.

'paper times you said probing legislator's' is the wordplay.
'paper' becomes 'i' (the i is a UK newspaper).
'times' becomes 'x' (2 times 4 is 2 x 4).
'you said' becomes 'U' (homophone of 'you').
'probing' means one lot of letters goes inside another (probe can mean to poke or prod into).
'legislator's' becomes 'MP's' (Member of Parliament).
'i'+'x'+'u'='ixu'
'ixu' put within 'mps' is 'MIX-UPS'.

Can you help me to learn more?