WASHINGTON — At this time in his first year as a U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was still weeks away from moving out of a temporary double-wide-trailer office and into his proper Senate suite.

But moving day for U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was Wednesday, and the new senator is already enjoying the chandeliers, fireplaces and two-story-high ceilings of his permanent workplace — nine rooms on the third floor of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Almost all signs that a Democrat — U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton of Minnesota — occupied the place have been removed, including the blue carpeting, which has been changed to a deep Republican red.

Republican DeMint will inherit Democratic furniture, though.

The office desk used by retired U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., will be DeMint’s after it’s refinished. Hollings has deeded the desk he used on the Senate floor — which belonged to S.C. political patriarch John C. Calhoun — to Graham.

Senators can work in any of three Washington buildings, but the Russell Building is a South Carolina tradition. Graham and his staff work there, as did Hollings and the late Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.

DeMint has weighed in on the decorating. The largest conference room, for example, will have “a Charleston theme,” he said.

“South Carolina now has two senators from the Upstate, and I need to let folks in the Lowcountry know that I’m very focused on them.”

Beyond that, his staff will decide how to adorn the space.

“My taste is questionable,” said the senator. “They don’t allow me to pick out anything that requires taste.”

LEGISLATION WATCH

• Actual title: “House Resolution 31: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a portrait of Dilip Singh Saund should be displayed in an appropriate place in the United States Capitol or in a House office building.”

• More fitting title: The Joe Wilson Didn’t Join the India Caucus For Nothing Resolution

• Intent: To honor the first Asian-American and the first native of India to be elected to Congress.

• Sponsored by: U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.

• Why do it? The life of Singh, who represented a California district from 1957 to 1963, is an inspiring immigrant’s success story, and Wilson has a number of Indian constituents.

• Will it pass? Odds are low. As of yet, it has no co-sponsors.

VERBATIM

“I don’t share the views of those people who feel that’s going to be some catastrophic event.”

— U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., on the election of former presidential candidate Howard Dean to chairman of the Democratic National Committee

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com.