Modify Selected Text

Hi all-- i'm having issues with modifying selected text and images in CKEditor-- here is the code that i use to get a selection, and then wrap it in a link. Btw, i am doing this from a dialog on top of the ckeditor.

/* the base script for ckeditor selection actions, like inserting links/images */
(function(){
   var editor=editor||CKEDITOR.instances[parent.$('#WYSIWYGwrapper textarea').attr('id')];
   if(CKEDITOR.env.ie){CKEDITOR.dialog.getCurrent().hide();}
   var selection=editor.getSelection(),
   element=editor.document.createElement('a'),
   text="",
   ranges=selection.getRanges(),
   range={},
   isWebkitShouldExtract=false,
   clone={},
   ShouldExtractWebkit=function(nodes) {
      var nodelen=nodes.length,
      i=0;
      for(;i<nodelen;i+=1) {
         if(nodes[i].nodeName==="IMG") return true;
      }
      return false;
   };
   this.insertMode=true;
   element.setAttribute("href","www.google.com");
   element.setAttribute("target","main");
   if(CKEDITOR.env.ie){text=editor.document.$.selection.createRange().htmlText;element.setHtml(text);editor.insertElement(element);}
   else{
      if(ranges.length>0){
         range=ranges[0];
         clone=range.cloneContents();
         if(CKEDITOR.env.webkit){isWebkitShouldExtract=ShouldExtractWebkit(clone.$.childNodes);}
         element.append(clone);
         if(!CKEDITOR.env.webkit || isWebkitShouldExtract){range.extractContents();}
         editor.insertElement(element);
      }
   }

   if(!CKEDITOR.env.ie){CKEDITOR.dialog.getCurrent().hide();}
}());

Overall, it seems like i can't select html items in the WYSYWIG and then wrap them in link tags consistently across browsers. Does anyone have experience with accomplishing this?