WASHINGTON INSIGHT

GETTING PERSONAL: Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), incensed that Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) campaigned against him when he ran for reelection last year, has been hurling slights at the Texan in an unusual breach of Senate decorum. After Hollings repeatedly called Gramm “son” at a Budget Committee meeting, a shaken Gramm tried a light riposte: “I never take offense at being called son unless it is followed by a preposition.” But in private, sources say, s.o.b. is precisely the term Hollings uses.