Lawmakers shun lender Countrywide

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By Jim McElhatton

Members of Congress scrambled to distance themselves Wednesday from subprime lender Countrywide Financial Corp. amid calls for an ethics probe and House investigation into whether some lawmakers got sweetheart loan deals through the company's chief executive.

Nearly a dozen House and Senate members have reported mortgage liabilities from Countrywide or its subsidiaries on personal financial disclosure forms, House and Senate filings show.

Congressional offices contacted yesterday said the members never got any special treatment and pointed out that Countrywide is one of the nation's largest home lenders.

Stephanie DuBois, spokeswoman for Rep. Connie Mack, Florida Republican who reported a pair of Countrywide mortgages worth at least a half million dollars, said the congressman got the loans before he was elected to Congress through a broker "the same way millions of Americans do."

But congressional scrutiny heightened Wednesday over reports of another sort of lending practice involving favorable loan deals arranged for prominent people through Countrywide chief executive Angelo Mozilo.

James Johnson, a former top adviser to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, resigned after reports that he got discounted mortgage rates through the company, which Mr. Obama has railed against on the campaign trail.

Other names that have surfaced in connection to the so-called "Friends of Angelo" loan program include Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democratic and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat and chairman of the Senate Budge Committee.

"After reviewing the e-mail traffic at Countrywide provided to me by reporters, it appears Countrywide waived one point on my mortgage," Mr. Conrad said. "Although I did not ask for or know that I was receiving a discount, and even though I was offered a competitive loan from another lender, I do not want to have received preferential treatment.

"Therefore I am writing a check today to Habitat for Humanity for $10,500," he said.

Mr. Dodd told reporters he was aware that he was a part of a special VIP program at Countrywide, but never thought it had anything to do with his political position.