All the Republican angst over one of the people on Barack Obama’s vice presidential selection committee, Jim Johnson, and his ties to Countrywide Financial has got me thinking. I’d like to make a confession: like Johnson, I have a “special” mortgage from Countrywide, one of the culprits in the subprime lending meltdown.

“I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages. There is a game that can be played — everybody who is tangentially related to my campaign is going to have a whole host of relationships,” Obama told reporters in St. Louis.

“I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters. At some point, we just asked people to do their assignments,” the Illinois senator said.

True, but I for one would like to admit, right here and now, that my 30-year first mortgage was taken years ago at a rate not available in the current market. Further, the loan on my nearly 60-year-old home would probably face increased scrutiny if it were not for my dogged insistence on making my payment each month. I doubt many people would get this type of preferential treatment, including offers from Countrywide to take out a second mortgage — a cold, hard cash payout — every single time I call them about anything no matter how unrelated, and I, for one, feel better coming clean about it.

Thank you for your understanding.