Sen. Jack Reed is riding high — you know, hobnobbing abroad with Barack Obama, appearing on Face the Nation, even seeing his name mentioned for vice president — but when we spoke yesterday he was most enthused about something else entirely.

This chat came almost 19 years after a 1989 column I did when he was a state legislator launching a 1990 bid for U.S. House.

A measure of how far Democrat Reed has come is the trip with Obama (and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel) to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, the eyes of the world upon them.

Well, on Obama. When I asked Reed yesterday if he felt like a fifth wheel, he chuckled, “No, there were just three of us!”

By reason of Senate protocol, Reed was, technically, the leader of the delegation. But, of course, Obama was the story and Reed went with the flow. “One of the first rules of leadership,” he said, “is to recognize the situation and adjust accordingly.”

I saw an image on TV and in The New York Times of Reed and Hagel just behind Obama at a news conference on a historic Jordan site on a hill overlooking Amman. It was, Reed recalled, an “absolutely spectacular” setting. What was going through his mind? As Obama fielded questions, Reed thought about what answers he’d give and compared them with the responses from the presidential candidate.

“Nobody asked you a question,” I said.

Reed said he wasn’t expecting any. “Barack at one time turned and invited us to join in … but clearly he was the individual that people wanted to talk to.”

Reed said he was impressed during the trip not only with Obama’s intellect but also his ability to talk tough when need be with leaders of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The trip produced terrific publicity for Obama but not, it seems, any bounce in the polls. Still, Reed said it enables Obama to cross a threshold of credibility: Seeing that he has the stature to be president, more voters now will be willing to mull his specific proposals on domestic issues.

Reed, 58, grew up in modest circumstances, but last week he and the man who may be the next president were dining in the palace with the king and queen of Jordan on oven-braised salmon on a bed of couscous tabouleh, prime rib with bulgur wheat and steamed caraway scented cabbage, Thai chicken curry in banana leaves and baby eggplant.

It’s not the chowder, baked beans and spaghetti and meatballs Reed ate as a kid in Cranston. “It was pretty good stuff,” he said of the palace fare, “but no one can beat my mother’s cooking, even the royal court of Jordan.”

What can I tell you? Reed is a politician and he talks like a politician. But he also actually does things. The massive mortgage foreclosure rescue bill that just passed Congress includes a Reed initiative for a permanent funding source to build, preserve and rehab housing for low-income families.

This is something Reed has been aiming for since he got to Washington. Indeed, that 1989 column said Reed had recently been to the capital to march on behalf of the homeless and he decried Congress’ failure to address the need for affordable housing. The new bill won’t magically eliminate homelessness, but it is, he said, a “significant breakthrough.”

Reed is hardly flashy, but I’ll take boring if it means getting results for people who need help. The senator said of the housing legislation, “If you work hard enough, if you care enough about it to keep grinding away at it, something is going to happen.”

Other politicians, please copy.

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com