The People on te Podium

"The more peace the better," says Arizona Congressman John Rhodes, who will serve as permanent chairman of next week's Republican Convention. "I'd like to have it as dull as the Democrats did." Rhodes is unlikely to get his wish. In fact, preventing the convention from degenerating into factional strife is the job confronting Rhodes and three other Republicans who will spend much of their time on the podium at the Kemper Arena. The four:

JOHN RHODES, 59, House Minority Leader, who, as permanent chairman of the convention, will have the power to recognize delegates and make rulings that could prove decisive. Rhodes will thus be the most powerful figure on the podium--until the nominee mounts it to deliver his acceptance speech. A genuine intellectual and the first Republican elected to the House from Arizona, he will rule on any disputes that may arise between the forces supporting President Ford and Challenger Ronald Reagan. The most crucial one could be over whether delegates must vote for the candidate they were chosen to support by home-state voters, or whether they are free to cast their ballots as they wish. A companion stickler: Can delegates abstain? Since it is generally agreed that Ford's strength will wane if there is more than one ballot, Reaganites might attempt to promote abstentions, depriving the President of the winning 1,130 votes.

Rhodes met privately last week with both Ford and Reagan strategists and bluntly told them that if the rulings are left to him, he will not tolerate abstentions and will demand that delegates back the candidate they were chosen to support. Declared Rhodes: "If you decide that the delegates can ignore the results of a presidential preference primary, then the primaries are meaningless."

HOWARD BAKER, 50, Senator from Tennessee, who will be the keynoter. His on-camera presence and mellifluous flow of sophisticated country wisdom enchanted audiences during the Watergate hearings--although his tendency to sermonize diluted his effectiveness as an interrogator. The astute Baker is keenly aware of the opportunities a resoundingly successful keynote speech could open to him: a possible vice-presidential nomination or enhanced stature that could lead to a place on the 1980 ticket --perhaps the top spot.

Although Baker is a Ford supporter and is credited with the President's narrow victory in the Tennessee primary, he has maintained good relations with Reagan and can be depended on to deliver a keynote speech that will not offend partisans of either candidate.

MARY LOUISE SMITH, 61, the first woman chairman of the Republican National Committee, will be one of the few women with a key role. Named party chairman by Ford shortly after he became President in 1974, she was widely regarded as a caretaker who would swiftly be replaced. An ill-advised public relations scheme that included a costly television flop (Republicans Are People Too) seemed to ensure her early departure. But the gentle mother of three and grandmother of five proved to have staying power. When the convention is called to order at 10:30 a.m. next Monday, Ford backer Mary Louise Smith, a native of Eddyville, Iowa, will be wielding the gavel.

ROBERT DOLE, 53, Senator from Kansas, who, as temporary convention chairman, will not have nearly the power vested in Rhodes but will preside over most of the first two days. Dole brought 28 of Kansas' 34 delegates into the Ford camp. Now in his second term in the Senate, the handsome, urbane Dole first gained national recognition as an acerbic, stiletto-tongued defender of Richard Nixon in the late 1960s.

As a reward, Nixon appointed Dole chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1971. Because he was later frequently at odds with the White House and Nixon's re-election committee, the President unceremoniously dumped him in 1973. He will speak on the convention's opening day, and while Keynoter Baker will take the high road, Dole's assignment is to tear apart the Democratic ticket. Smiles Dole: "They want me to throw a little raw meat to the delegates."

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