Look, I feel really bad that I keep on beating up on Jake Tapper, especially after ABC's "stellar" performance in the debate last week. But he just keeps on giving me so much material to work with! Don't blame me, blame Jake.

Today's Tapper is a detailed analysis of the scurrilous new anti-Obama ad being pushed by Hillary Clinton's old Whitewater nemesis-turned-ally.

The question Tapper asks readers to answer is whether the ad will work. The thing he doesn't tell readers is that the ad is not currently on air and is only being pushed by Newsmax.com, the Richard Mellon Scaife-owned media outlet. The head of the PAC seeking to put it on the air hopes to raise $300,000 -- which viewed in the larger scheme of the campaign, is nothing. (We're taking about 0.1% what what Clinton and Obama have raised up until this point.)

So no, Jake, no matter how good the ad is, it won't work, because nobody will see it -- unless members of the media like you obsess about its particulars. In fact, that's the entire goal of the ad -- to get the media to debate whether or not such a strategy will work.

Toughen up, Jake. Quit falling for their dirty tricks. Quit letting these hacks set the agenda for you. You write enough smart things that I know you don't really buy the sleaze they are selling. So have the courage to ignore them.