Washington Examiner, please define “linked”

From this misleading headline:

Hoyer-linked firm wins $18M Recovery.gov contract

The item's written by David Freddoso, who authored a get-Obama book last year. The premise is that Smartronix, a Maryland-based company located in the Congressional district of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, just landed a sizable government contract to re-design the Recovery.gov website.

That's a rather pedestrian development. Where's the news? Where's the link? Turns out there is none, other than the fact that the company is based in Hoyer's district. Hoyer had nothing to do with the firm landing the contract and didn't even know about it until after the fact. Quite a “link”, eh?

Actually, there is one link. According to the report, over the last ten years three execs at Smartronix have donated, on average, $600 per-year to Hoyer, their local (and influential) Congressman.

I kid you not. That's the newsworthy “link.”

UPDATED: I love conservative 'journalism.' Note this passage from Freddoso piece [emphasis added]:

ABC reports this morning that the Maryland firm Smartronix has won what seems like an enormous $18 million contract to re-design the Recovery.gov website.

What does that highlighted section even mean? Is Freddoso suggesting the contract “seems” to be for $18 million, or that the contract “seems” to be enormous? If it's the latter, on what planet does a government contract worth $18 million (that's million, not billion) suddenly pass for “enormous”?