One afternoon in late June, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's political advisers invited their boss to a downtown conference room to report an unsettling development: Focus groups commissioned by the campaign were saying that Fenty's leadership style was offensive and that he was oblivious to constituents' concerns.

If the mayor had any chance of winning them over, the prospective voters told the campaign, he needed to apologize for his actions.

Tom Lindenfeld, the mayor's chief political strategist, proposed a cure, a one-page letter to be delivered to thousands of voters across the District, a letter in which Fenty would acknowledge mistakes and express remorse. He would promise to change.

"What is this?" the mayor said, reading the letter and tossing it away.

"The things you don't do now will be much harder for voters to ignore later," Lindenfeld told him.

The mayor slammed his hand on the table.

"I'm proud of my record," Fenty shot back, according to Lindenfeld and two others present at the meeting. The mayor stood and walked out.

Across the decade in which he shot to the top of the city's political pyramid, Fenty relied on unrelenting energy and a well-honed internal compass - his gut - to navigate three elections and the often treacherous complexities of running a big city. His instinct told him he could win a D.C. Council seat in 2000, even against a veteran incumbent. He was right. In 2006, he ignored the doubters who said he was too young at 35 and unaccomplished to capture the mayoralty. He was right then, too.

As the 2010 Democratic primary campaign arrived, the mayor's instinct told him that his accomplishments would far outweigh complaints that he seemed aloof and uncaring. Overhauling the school system meant something, he told loyalists. Building swimming pools and soccer fields affected people's lives. His handpicked police chief was popular across the city. When it was time to vote, the mayor was confident, the substance of his administration's work would trump all.

If the mayor had any chance of winning them over, the prospective voters told the campaign, he needed to apologize for his actions.

Tom Lindenfeld, the mayor's chief political strategist, proposed a cure, a one-page letter to be delivered to thousands of voters across the District, a letter in which Fenty would acknowledge mistakes and express remorse. He would promise to change.

"What is this?" the mayor said, reading the letter and tossing it away.

"The things you don't do now will be much harder for voters to ignore later," Lindenfeld told him.

The mayor slammed his hand on the table.

"I'm proud of my record," Fenty shot back, according to Lindenfeld and two others present at the meeting. The mayor stood and walked out.

Across the decade in which he shot to the top of the city's political pyramid, Fenty relied on unrelenting energy and a well-honed internal compass - his gut - to navigate three elections and the often treacherous complexities of running a big city. His instinct told him he could win a D.C. Council seat in 2000, even against a veteran incumbent. He was right. In 2006, he ignored the doubters who said he was too young at 35 and unaccomplished to capture the mayoralty. He was right then, too.

As the 2010 Democratic primary campaign arrived, the mayor's instinct told him that his accomplishments would far outweigh complaints that he seemed aloof and uncaring. Overhauling the school system meant something, he told loyalists. Building swimming pools and soccer fields affected people's lives. His handpicked police chief was popular across the city. When it was time to vote, the mayor was confident, the substance of his administration's work would trump all.

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Tropical Storm Karl strengthened on Wednesday on a path that posed a risk to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and some of its oil installations in the Bay of Campeche while two hurricanes raced across the Atlantic Ocean.

Neither Hurricane Igor nor Julia posed an immediate threat to land or energy interests but Igor was expected to close in on Bermuda within three to four days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Karl, 11th named storm of the season, had winds of 63 mph/ as of 5 a.m./(0900 GMT) and was likely to get stronger before reaching land. Its center was expected to cross the Yucatan on Wednesday and re-enter the Gulf of Mexico after nightfall.

Upon reaching water again, Karl was expected to make hurricane status, the hurricane center said, and was set to miss U.S. oil and natural gas rigs in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico although forecasters said it may hit Mexican oil rigs.

Mexico's state-run oil giant Pemex said it had not yet taken any action but was monitoring Karl closely. Emergency authorities warned the storm could bring heavy rains to the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, home to the Cancun beach resort.

Out in the Atlantic, Igor -- 1,090 miles/ southeast of Bermuda -- showed signs of weakening overnight but still was a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale with 145 mile per hour/(230 kmh) winds.

Strengthening overnight, Julia -- 525 miles/ west of the Cape Verde Islands and moving northwest -- was also category 4 with 132 mph/ winds and farther from land than Igor, a day after developing into the season's fifth hurricane.

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Non-public meetings are on tap for U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday in Washington.

After receiving the daily briefings in the Oval Office, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , the daily agenda indicates.

Obama will welcome the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to the White House, with the two leaders meeting behind closed doors.

In the afternoon. Obama will meet with his senior advisers in the Oval Office.

The last meeting included on the agenda is scheduled with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

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Gov. Paterson yesterday had one more thing to say about building a mosque near Ground Zero: Please, don't say anything -- at least until after Sept. 11.

The governor asked both supporters and detractors not to talk about the fiery issue this week out of respect for the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, which begins tomorrow night, the ninth anniversary of 9/11 on Saturday and the monthlong Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which ends this week.

"I propose that . . . we should all be focused on our concern to those who lost relatives . . . on Sept. 11, and the anniversary of that event will be Saturday," Paterson said before the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn.

"Perhaps we might think more in terms of those families . . . and maybe all step back and try to devote a week of peace.

"I'm going to try, as much as I can, not to talk about [the mosque] for a week just to see if this exercise would help New Yorkers and Americans remember that the terrorists didn't care who we were when they attacked us," he added.

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Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats on the economy, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that 46 percent of Americans say that Republicans in Congress would do a better job dealing with the economy, with 43 percent saying that Congressional Democrats would do a better job on the top issue on the minds of Americans. The GOP's three point advantage is within the poll's sampling error.

The Republicans' 3-point edge is a big shift from last year, when the Democrats held a 52 to 39 percent advantage. The GOP leads 51 percent to 32 percent on the economy among Independents, and they have a 9-point advantage on the issue among voters 65 and older.

According to the poll, Republicans have a slight 3-point edge over the Democrats on taxes and a 6-point advantage on tacking the federal budget deficit. The GOP holds a larger 20-point lead on dealing with terrorism and an 18-point advantage on illegal immigration. Republicans have a 3-point advantage on the war in Afghanistan.

"Democrats have slightly better numbers than the Republicans on just two issues -- Social Security and health care -- and on both of them, that gap is extremely small," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "That's bad news for the Democrats, who in past elections have had large leads over the GOP on those domestic issues."

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted September 1 and September 2, with 1,024 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

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Tropical Storm Hermine crossed the Rio Grande River into south Texas with high winds and heavy rain after making landfall in northeastern Mexico hours earlier, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm was about 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas, at 4 a.m. local time moving north- northwest at 17 mph, the center said in a website advisory.

Hermine’s sustained winds dropped to 50 miles per hour from near hurricane-force when it crossed the coast about 40 miles south of Brownsville. The rain-laden storm is expected to weaken further as it moves from Texas northward into Oklahoma over the next day or so, the center said.

Hurricane watches for the coastal areas of Texas and Mexico were dropped after the storm made landfall near where Hurricane Alex came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico and dissipated in the first hurricane of the June through November season.

Hermine, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, may bring as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain to northeastern Mexico and southern Texas with isolated areas getting as much as a foot of precipitation, the center said.

“These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods” and isolated tornadoes, the center said.

Corpus Christi Operations

Heating oil for October is a “stronger” because Hermine may affect operations at three refineries in Corpus Christi, Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks & Opinions LLC in Houston, said yesterday.

Valero Energy Corp.’s Corpus Christi East and West refineries, with a combined capacity of 315,000 barrels a day, made “preliminary storm preparations” before Hermine’s landfall, Bill Day, a company spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mail. “No decisions have been made regarding changes in production.”

The hurricane center is also monitoring the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston in the northern Leeward Islands, which the agency now says has just a 20 percent chance of re-forming into a tropical cyclone over the next 48 hours.

A low-pressure area about 300 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and a larger one between the Cape Verde Islands and the west coast of Africa have a 10 percent chance of tropical cyclone formation over the next two days, the center said.

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President Barack Obama will call on Congress to pass new tax breaks that would allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their new capital investments through 2011, the latest in a series of proposals the White House is rolling out in hopes of jump-starting economic growth ahead of the November elections.

An administration official said the tax breaks would save businesses $200 billion over two years, allowing companies to have more cash on hand. The president will outline the proposal during a speech on the economy in Cleveland Wednesday.

Amid an uptick in unemployment to 9.6 percent, and polls showing that the November election could be dismal for Democrats, Obama has promised to propose new steps to stimulate the economy. In addition to the business investment tax breaks, he will also call for a $50 billion infrastructure investment and a permanent expansion of research and development tax credits for companies.

The proposals would requires congressional approval, which is highly uncertain given Washington's partisan atmosphere. With the public worried about adding to the mounting federal deficits, and Republicans saying spending is out of control, even many Democratic lawmakers are reluctant to approve new spending so close to the midterm elections.

Even if legislators could pass some of the proposals in the short window between their return to Capitol Hill in mid-September and the elections, it's unlikely the efforts would significantly stimulate the economy by November.

Several million people and 1.5 million businesses would benefit from the tax breaks, said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the formal announcement has not been made.

The official estimated the ultimate cost to taxpayers over 10 years would be $30 billion, with most of the money lost in tax revenue being recouped as the economy strengthens.

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