Given Sen. Kent Conrad's well-earned reputation for financial acumen on the country's behalf, it's disappointing to hear that he got himself into a position of receiving preferential treatment in personal business matters because of his standing in the U.S. Senate.

He says that without seeking it or knowing it, he got special treatment from Countrywide Financial in 2004, when refinancing the mortgage on a beach home in Delaware. A point was shaved off the interest rate. Countrywide also lent Conrad $96,000 in 2004 to buy his brothers' interest in an eight-unit Bismarck apartment house. Countrywide normally limits its loans to four-unit buildings.

Conrad has taken the initiative of seeking an ethics inquiry by a Senate committee. He's made a donation to Habitat to Humanity in the amount he will have benefited in the beach house refinancing.

Those moves help - some.

But it's damage control.

Conrad, along with Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., got tangled in a net of relationships involving Countrywide CEOAngelo Mozilo (who reportedly maintained a "Friends of Angelo" list) - whom Conrad says he never met but talked with on the telephone - and James Johnson, who was at one point head of Fannie Mae, a national lender and guarantor of loans. Conrad readily calls Johnson a longtime friend and says that his friend recommended Countrywide and Mozilo. More tangles: It's reported that Johnson received home loans from Countrywide.

Someone with the financial smarts of Kent Conrad should have known what the prevailing interest rate was for an ordinary borrower and that he was getting a deal. It's on Countrywide that it seems to have bent its own rules to finance the commercial unit buyout, but still it's connected with Conrad's name.

He should be forthcoming, now and throughout the lifespan of this mess.

Conrad should remind himself that North Dakotans' trust is his most valuable asset, and repair is needed, so that he can continue to be a capable leader.