It meets secretly and doesn't even publicly disclose its schedule. It won't officially comment on whom it's investigating.

But like it or not, the Senate Ethics Committee is back in the public spotlight as it begins to investigate the special-loans-for-Senators scandal revealed on Portfolio.com earlier this month.

After Portfolio.com reported that the troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial appeared to have set aside some of its own criteria in making loans to a pair of prominent Democratic senators, attention quickly turned to the Senate Ethics Panel.

Four days after Portfolio.com named the senators—Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who chairs the Budget Committee, and Chris Dodd, of Connecticut, who chairs the Banking Committee—a private group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a formal complaint and called for an investigation.

Such a move almost always triggers a preliminary investigation, and the ethics committee chairwoman, Barbara Boxer of California, told the Washington Post that one is underway. "A complaint has been filed, and we are, as we always do, looking at that," she said.

While the committee won't officially say whom it is investigating, both Dodd and Conrad have vowed to cooperate fully. Conrad's office told Portfolio.com today that it had yet to hear from the committee but reiterated that it will cooperate fully. A source familiar with the details says the committee has not yet contacted Dodd's office, either.

Other fallout from the scandal continues.

Earlier this week, Boxer and John Cornyn of Texas, the ranking Republican on the ethics panel, proposed requiring members of Congress to include mortgage information on their public financial-disclosure statements. They wanted it included as an amendment to the $300 billion housing-bailout bill that is wending its way through Congress.

Cornyn and Boxer have said that all six members of the ethics panel back the amendment; not surprisingly, both Dodd and Conrad support the idea too. But Cornyn's office said that Dodd and the other manager of the housing bill, Richard Shelby of Alabama, the banking committee's ranking Republican, have refused to allow the amendment to be added because they say it's not germane to the bill.

Whether the amendment will come to a vote this week remains in some doubt.

In the House, a group of 28 Republicans asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week to look into the issue, but she dismissed the problem as a Senate matter. Wednesday, another group of House Republicans wrote to Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, to investigate and subpoena records from Countrywide—which is run by Angelo Mozilo and is being taken over by Bank of America—to find out if more members got a special deal.

That leaves the investigation in the hands of Boxer and Cornyn, a political odd couple.

Boxer is a California liberal whose daughter was once married to Hillary Clinton's brother. (The two are now divorced.) Cornyn is a white-haired conservative former judge from Texas who is one of George W. Bush's closest allies in the Senate.

While Cornyn and Boxer have publicly advocated their amendment to provide full disclosure on mortgages, neither is discussing the Dodd-Conrad case per se, as is customary.

Others members of the committee are Ken Salazar of Colorado and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, both Democrats and former state attorneys general; as well as two Republicans, Pat Roberts of Kansas and Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

The ethics panel has a range of tools at its disposal as it moves forward. It could investigate the matter and issue a letter dismissing the case. It could reprimand a senator or encourage the entire Senate to take up censure or dismissal.

Such moves are quite rare, however. The committee unanimously recommended the expulsion of Senator Robert Packwood of Oregon amid an investigation of sexual misconduct in 1995 after determining that he'd edited some documents and diaries sought by the panel and had refused to give over others. Packwood resigned before he could be ejected from the Senate.

In 2002, the panel "severely admonished" New Jersey Democrat Robert Torricelli for receiving illegal gifts from a campaign contributor. Torricelli, who was seeking reelection that year, dropped out of the race.

If history is any guide, the ethics panel could take several months to complete an investigation. The committee took 10 months to resolve a complaint about Louisiana Republican David Vitter after he was linked to a prostitution ring.

In that case, the committee concluded that the alleged transgression had occurred before Vitter had arrived in the Senate and thus was out of its jurisdiction.

While the panel moved more quickly on the matter of Senator Larry Craig and his arrest in an airport men's room, this is likely to be a slow probe, experts said.

First, the ethics panel must determine if the special mortgages that Dodd and Conrad received constitute a "gift" as narrowly defined by Senate ethics rules.

If it is proven that a V.I.P. mortgage meets the Senate's definition of a gift, then there's the matter of determining whether the two veteran Democrats knew or should have known that they were receiving such a benefit.

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Also on Portfolio.com

Countrywide's V.I.P. Club
An exclusive look at the Countrywide Financial loan scandal.

Angelo's Friends
A rogues gallery of Countrywide "V.I.P." loan recipients.

Capitol Pains
A day-by-day rundown of the unfolding Countrywide scandal.

Capital Index
Political positioning from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.