But before it was announced, another senior mayoral aide had said he did not see how the Mayor could accept it.

Some of his supporters have said the Mayor should declare victory on the big issues and accept the Speaker's compromise on appointments.

The Mayor should accept the challenge of using his expertise to create an investigative unit that works.

And as late as last month, the Mayor accepted a commission report that laid blame everywhere but where it belonged - on the boycotters.

The Mayor has long been an outspoken supporter of such legislation and accepted relatively little money from the tobacco industry during his campaigns.

Even if all these were true, almost everyone agrees that the Mayor still could have accepted the report with grace.

City Hall officials, who asked not to be identified, said they fully expected the Mayor to accept the recommendation.

But the Mayor says there is no choice for this city but to accept the inevitability of new people, and then try the best to accommodate them.

As part of the deal, the Mayor accepted the Council's figure of $1.3 billion for the surplus.

This year, the message his colleagues received was that the Mayor was accepting responsibility for the scandal deliberately.