The news in recent days that two Democratic U.S. Senators got special treatment from the politically connected head of the Countrywide Financial company when it came to personal mortgages has put our Capitol Hill News Spidey Senses on Alert.

While both Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) denied wrongdoing and invited a review by the Senate Ethics Committee, it was hard to figure out whether this was a story that would soon run its course, or turn into something that might yet draw some election year blood.

"At no point did anyone suggest that we were supposed to get some kind of deal out of Countrywide," said Sen. Dodd.

Countrywide has been at the center of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and the thought that it was giving loans to Senators, who were pegged as VIPs certainly isn't something to ignore.

At a news conference Tuesday were he announced a deal on a major bill dealing with home foreclosures, Dodd repeatedly said he did nothing wrong, and that he didn't even get the best offer evidently to refinance his mortgages on two homes.

"To the best of my knowledge the rates that we received were not some kind of cut rate deals at all, they were standard rates," Dodd said.

But every time he suggested that he was in the clear, yet another reporter would zero in again and ask him why he didn't get suspicious about his VIP designation.

"No one was said we were going to get some kind of special treatment, we thought it was a courtesy since we already had a loan," said Dodd.

While colleagues of mine were busy checking the traps around the Hill for any hint of mortgage loan favoritism, a few lone voices were calling for an investigation.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has already made it clear that he wants hearings on Countrwide and its financial links to fellow members of Congress.

His angle?  He wants to know if any lawmakers got special cut rate mortgages because of who they were and whether they were buddies with Countrywide Chief Angelo Mozilo.

In a letter to his colleagues, Hensarling said, "I am concerned about allegations of preferential teratment afforded to some individuals in Congress regarding their mortgages."

The call for a review wasn't being echoed by too many in the Congress, as no one's quite sure where something like this might or might not lead.

I have no reason to believe that there is any more smoke here than what's already been reported in the press.

But you never know.  Let's see what happens.