On Tuesday evening, the Rev. Jesse Jackson huddled with top Senate Democratic leadership to make sure they were all on board for his drive to renew the Voting Rights Act.

The meeting started at about 6:30 p.m. in the office of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and went on for about 30 minutes. Jackson wants the Dem senators to participate in his Aug. 6 march and rally in Atlanta in support of reauthorizing portions of the act due to expire in 2007.

Also in the meeting: Conference Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (Mich.); the whip, Dick Durbin (Ill.); and Mark Pryor (Ark.). Jackson moved on to sit down with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in his office on the same subject.

On June 16, I reported in this column that GOP leaders in the House wanted to reauthorize the act. Jackson said he is worried Republicans will be “trying to use deceptive language” that could lead to the law’s being struck down.

Hastert on the hustings. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was scheduled to be the special guest at two receptions last night, for Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) and former Rep. Max Burns (R-Ga.), running again in a comeback bid.

On Monday, Hastert keynoted a breakfast in Philadelphia for Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and moved on to King of Prussia, Pa., to guest at a funder lunch for Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.).

Catching up: Last week, Hastert threw a D.C. funder for his KOMPAC (Keep Our Majority PAC) war chest and was the draw at a National Republican Congressional Committee funder for the Republicans’ top Retain Our Majority Program candidates.

By the numbers. Democrats James Carville and Stan Greenberg, in their latest polling, asked respondents if they felt warm or cold toward the GOP Congress and Tom DeLay (Texas), identified in their survey as the “Republican leader of the House.” The GOP Congress came in at 41 percent warm and 41 percent cold. DeLay’s numbers were 31 percent warm and 39 percent cold.

Durbin, a week later. Durbin, the Democrats’ No. 2 in the Senate, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that his leadership ability has not been hurt by the uproar over ill-chosen words about treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo.

Durbin apologized for his remarks last week and took advantage of an opening Blitzer gave him to return a jab thrown by a fellow Illinoisan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.  Rumsfeld said Durbin’s comments would follow him in the same way the anti-Vietnam War remarks from Jane Fonda have stayed with her.

Durbin,  said, “I stand by my apology. I’m sure Secretary Rumsfeld wished there were words that he had said even before our invasion of Iraq that he could have back.

Blitzer wondered if was calling on Rumsfeld to apologize. Said Durbin, “I’m not in the apology business this week.”

He said his effectiveness will not be reduced:

“I can tell you that my colleagues from both sides of the aisle have come forward, particularly the Democrats, to encourage me and to stand behind me, and they understand what happened.

“But I’m lucky being from Illinois and from the Midwest; we believe in pretty basic fairness. Once you’ve made a mistake, get up, dust yourself off and go to work.”

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it