Can you say "Conflict of Interest" boys and girls?

I don't know about you, but the highlighted portion below screams obvious conflict of interest to me. Headline: LOAN SLEAZE SPREADS

Two influential US senators got "VIP" loans from a leading subprime mortgage lender that saved them tens of thousands of dollars, it was reported last night.

The Democratic pols, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, both received the highly favorable loans under the designation "Friend of Angelo," a reference to embattled Countrywide head Angelo Mozilo, Condé Nast Portfolio reported.

Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, while Conrad is chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee. The two senators refinanced properties through the VIP program in 2003 and 2004, the report said.

That is as close to an out right bribe as you can get without doing the full Murtha and being taped. The punchline is these disreputable characters will shape the sub-prime "crisis" bailout legislation.

UPDATE: Called my Representative (Boehner) and U.S. Senators (Voinovich and Brown) asking if they will be taking any action to investigate bribery charges. Also, called Countrywide and asked how I could get the special bribery rate. As it stands right now I don't expect to see Senators Dodd and Conrad investigated and I really don't think I'm going to get the special bribery interest rate. Wasn't really expecting much action from any of the calls, but I hope they get enough calls to understand that regular folks (ie: taxpayers) are disgusted with business as usual in D.C.