By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Mon, Jan 5, 2009 (8:16 p.m.)

Sen. Harry Reid

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid personally called Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. after news reports that the senator had rejected Jackson and two other lawmakers as possible Senate appointees because he was concerned they could not win the seat in a future election.

A spokesman for Jackson confirmed that the congressman and Reid spoke on Saturday and “reiterated their mutual respect.”

Reid’s office separately called the office of the Illinois Rep. Danny Davis, who was one of the other lawmakers mentioned.

Reid spoke positively of the two congressmen and other potential appointees from Illinois during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday that Reid had discussed his preferences for filling President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat during a call with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the days before the governor was arrested for trying to sell the seat.

Reid pushed back against Jackson, Davis and state Senate President Emil Jones, the paper reported, because he was concerned they could not hold the seat in the next election. Reid supported two other potential appointees, veteran Tammy Duckworth and the state’s Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Reid has since said Blagojevich leaked the conversation and was distorting the details of the call to deflect attention from his own legal problems.

“This is part of Blagojevich's cloud,” Reid said on the Sunday show. “He's making all this up. I had a conversation with him ... I didn't tell him who not to appoint.”

On “Meet the Press,” Reid praised those lawmakers involved, calling Davis “a fine congressman,” and saying Jackson “is somebody that I think would be a good senator.”

Davis spokesman Ira Cohen could not immediately confirm a call from the senator’s office, but said Monday that Reid’s reported comments were “not an issue.”

Jackson chief of staff Kenneth Edmonds said Reid “made clear that Governor Blagojevich had leaked and distorted their private conversation” during the senator’s Saturday call to the congressman.

“The Majority Leader and Jackson reiterated their mutual respect and pledged not to allow the Governor's tactics to come between them, drive a wedge in the party or to obscure the facts,” according to a statement from Edmonds. “Congressman Jackson certainly appreciated the Majority Leader's complimentary and gracious comments about him on Meet the Press."