THE CONGRESS: Mr. Sam's House Rules

Next to Speaker Sam Rayburn, 76, a 23-termer to whom the Lower House is a home, 14-term Virginia Democrat Howard Worth Smith is the most powerful Congressman. "Judge" Smith, 75, chairman of the Rules Committee, is the wintry-eyed gatekeeper who decides which legislation written by other committees gets to the floor for debate. A venerable stone wall against spending pressures. Smith drew the postelection ire of some 165 members of the new, liberal House, who mumbled direly about changing House rules to cut Smith's power, tripped off some brave headlines about "revolt."

But they knew better. Their only hope for trimming down the second most powerful Congressman was to enlist the sympathy of Mr. Sam himself. Meekly, they wrote to him at his home in Bonham, Texas to petition for an interview. Carefully, they grapevined the gist of their case: they wanted nothing, really, except to increase the Speaker's own control over Smith's difficult committee. Perhaps, they hinted, Mr. Sam would add an extra liberal Democrat to the Rules Committee (eight Democrats, four Republicans), thus weaken Smith's coalition of conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats.

Rayburn just let things simmer, then last week he allowed the senior insurgent, California's eight-term Chet Holifield, to enter his office and raise the rules question. Then he gave the answer: No. With little more than the whimper of a face-saving press release, the Democratic revolt curled up and died.