In an edifying moment for civics students everywhere, Atlantic City's mayor of the moment, Lorenzo Langford took the mike and proclaimed that if you're gonna throw down on him, the Man Upstairs has his back: "Plot and plan against me, if you will. But remember, there is a God in heaven plotting and planning against you."

As an understandably jaundiced David G. Schwartz observed, "I like how there’s no longer even a pretense of serving the people of Atlantic City: it’s all just about getting power and holding on to it."

Better still, if you're hoping to bid on Bader Field, this is who you're going to have to deal with -- a mayor who talks like a deranged Roman emperor. And who followed his God's-gonna-bust-a-cap-in-your-ass speech with a City Hall bloodbath.

And to think that Jo Schmoe, Slot Attendant, can't run for office in Atlantic City on account of she works in one of them crooked casinos, y'know. We've gotta keep those dangerous characters out of the system.

Atlantic City PNK'd. I've got to thank Dr. Schwartz for that headline, inspired by Pinnacle Entertainment's latest rebuff to the Boardwalk, which took place last week. Its $2 billion megaresort is on "indefinite hold,"perhaps for years. CEO Dan Lee had a litany of excuses to deploy, up to and including slots in Maryland, which is a pretty feeble line of argument when you consider that Marylanders would have to pass up racinos in Pennsylvania and Delaware to get to Atlantic City. Oh, and then there's Bader Field and Aqueduct in New York and casinos in Pennsylvania and ... and ...

Lee apparently didn't cite Atlantic City's partial smoking ban but it was surely on his mind. Some of the competitive pressures Lee did index are nothing new, which makes you wonder why Pinnacle went so aggressively into Atlantic City, demolishing the old Sands and bullying landowners who didn't meet its price for their real estate. Like several other companies, Pinnacle seems to have taken the go-go euphoria of 2005-06 for the norm and is now experiencing a rude awakening.

Pinnacle used up a lot of good will on the Boardwalk and I don't get the feeling there's much sympathy now that it's stranded in midstream. As for receiving an attractive offer for its Sands acreage ... doubtful. The city is suddenly having difficulty finding takers for Bader Field, plus MGM Mirage's Marina District land -- a far more attractive parcel -- may soon be up for grabs. And that's not even a full inventory of potential casino sites.

I've been giving Pinnacle the benefit of the doubt for a while now, but I'm prepared to join Prof. Schwartz and call "B.S." on this project. I'll be happily surprised if Pinnacle gets the project off the launching pad. Happy, but surprised nonetheless.

It took a couple of years but finally Morgans Hotel Group got around to exercising its right to franchise the Hard Rock brand west of the Mississippi. And the lucky winner? Cherokee Casino Resort, near Tulsa. Maybe if Morgans had been more aggresssive with those franchising rights it obtained when it bought the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, in Vegas, it wouldn't have had to turn around and sell 8/10 of the HRH back to the bank.