Congressional Quarterly reports that the Senate Ethics Committee is looking into the preferential loan treatment that Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad received from Countrywide Financial.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said Tuesday that the Ethics Committee is examining mortgages he received in 2004 from Countrywide Financial.

“I’m talking to the Ethics Committee,” said Conrad, D-N.D., who, along with Banking Chairman Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, has been identified in published reports as being among a group of six current and former officials given unusually favorable mortgage deals from Countrywide.

The committee investigation looks to be spurred by both a complaint filed by CREW – yes, the Senate actually accepts outside complaints – and the doggedness of Sen. Conrad to clear his name. It is clear from the article that Conrad is the one making sure the media knows that the tight-lipped Ethics Committee is investigating his loan.