Jackson and Clinton Act to Douse Sparks : Democrats: Quote attributed to civil rights leader has potential for controversy. But both men seek to distance themselves from the flap.

The vice presidential nomination threatened to divide Jesse Jackson and Democratic front-runner Bill Clinton on Monday, after Jackson was quoted as saying that Clinton would face “consequences” if the civil rights leader was left off the ticket. But the pair hastily distanced themselves from the report, agreeing that it was too early to talk about running mates.

The flap began when the New York Daily News on Monday quoted Jackson as saying: “I’ve got the experience and I’ve got the votes. We are ready for any opportunity to serve, but we are ready if ignored or rejected. If I am rejected this time, I am prepared to react.”

Then, Monday morning, Jackson gave an interview to AP Network News, in which he said he might withhold backing from a ticket that did not include him. Jackson, who has run for the presidency twice himself, told the Associated Press: “I have supported it all these years, not being on the ticket, but things do change.”

But after several phone calls between the two Democrats’ organizations, Jackson put out a statement insisting that the Daily News story was “text without a context.”

“Let me be clear,” the statement said. “At no time did I threaten the candidate or the party over the vice presidency or anything else.”

The statement did not challenge any quotation in the article and did not mention the AP interview.

The episode came a day before the Pennsylvania primary, and at a time when Clinton has been striving to line up the support of key Democrats. Clinton has already been embarrassed by the widely publicized comments of Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey that the party should look for another candidate.

The incident was reminiscent of the 1988 race, when Jackson said that because of his strong primary showing he had “earned” the right to be Michael S. Dukakis’ running mate. Jackson was angered when Dukakis picked Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate, and felt further injured when he heard of the selection from a reporter--not from Dukakis.

Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., has offered Jackson the second spot on his ticket, which Jackson has neither accepted nor rejected. In the past, he has said that he deserves consideration from whoever the nominee is.

On Monday, however, Jackson seemed to intensify the pressure on the front-runner. The Daily News story quoted him as saying that he had been “continuously generous” to Clinton, that when Clinton “was really at a low point, when he had to react to the Gennifer Flowers situation, I didn’t attack him. . . . “

It quoted Jackson as saying: “We won’t be eliminated this time. We can’t be. Every action has consequences.”

He taped the AP interview, saying that a Clinton-Jackson ticket could be the Democrats’ best hope to recapture the White House. “Perhaps it will be necessary to have it just that broad in order to touch the broad base of the American public that we need to win in 1992,” he said.

Then he issued his conciliatory statement.

Clinton downplayed the affair Monday afternoon, saying that Jackson had called him to say the article “didn’t happen.” He said Jackson told him he thought the discussion of running mates was “premature. . . . I don’t want to engage in it--I didn’t say anything different than I have already.”

Clinton aides speculated that Jackson’s intent was not to pressure Clinton into choosing him but to warn that he would react strongly if he was treated the same as he was in 1988.

The affair threatened to further divide the two politicians, who have been circling each other for months in a wary pas de deux.

Last February, when he was erroneously told that Jackson had decided to support Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Clinton accused Jackson of betraying him. His comments were picked up by an open microphone and broadcast. Jackson responded that he was “disappointed and disturbed” by Clinton’s remarks.