With those words, Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner struck another blow for enlightenment. Such excessive candor on the witness stand should make interesting conversation fodder on his next trip to Peking to fawn over the Chi-Comm bosses.

I've been present when Weidner has rhapsodized about the superior business climate offered by his Communist benefactors, especially compared to the "hubristic" leadership of Las Vegas and Clark County. Lemme tell ya, It's difficult for someone who's -- at the risk of sounding corny -- proud to be an American to listen to that kind of talk and not want to puke. Las Vegas Sands hasn't done too shabbily in its namesake city, either, and a passing acknowledgment or two of that good fortune shouldn't be beneath the Weidners of this world.

Weidner, staying on script

One can safely presume Weidner wasn't reading off of his Cliff Notes when he made his "All Chinese ... " remark. However, the fact that Weidner was working from a script and that the aforesaid script has been deemed admissible evidence may call a previous ruling into question. Weidner's plaintive comment that the Richard Suen litigation was costing Sands $8 million to $10 million (Isn't that just 'walking-around' money to Sheldon Adelson?) was ruled prejudicial, but not sufficiently so as to warrant a mistrial.

"It was not planned. It was a mistake," said Sands attorney (and Roger Clemens apologist) Rusty Hardin. But if any reference to litigation costs is in Weidner's seven pages of 'cheat sheets,' then it was neither unplanned nor a mistake. Can you say "reversible error," Judge Michelle Leavitt?

Like I've said before, I'm still not persuaded of Suen's version of events. But, between Sands' top executives testifying that the company's right hand didn't know what its left was doing and that -- at a critical juncture in the company's fortunes -- Adelson was so zonked-out on prescription drugs he had to be administered methadone, plus a maladroit Adelson-Weidner performance on the witness stand, Sands is undergoing public mortification. No wonder Adelson wanted media barred from the courtroom: Not to avoid revealing trade secrets, but for fear of embarrassment.

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