I guess it isn’t that big, but the point is that it really doesn’t, and won’t, play well with the people.
I know Obama does this kind of thing daily and on a far grander scale, but we don’t like it when he does it.
Unfortunately, based on a contribution list, you can pretty well make any politician look like he’s on the take for one thing or another. The Gardisel thing is much more complicated than Perry took money from Merck or a Perry guy used to work for Merck. Like all state politics, there are competing and conflicting interests, make the final decisions much less black and white than are often portrayed.