On WWL today, Nagin went off on a rant against local media and others.You can see video and read transcripts of Part Ihere and Part IIhere. As I watched the video I thought Nagin seemed sad, pathetic, infuriating and though I hate this word–unhinged. At one point interviewer Sally Ann Roberts even questions his mental health.

When Nagin stated…”I don’t know if I can work any harder than I am right now”… ironically and unfortunately I think that is the most honest statement of self awareness from the Mayor though not in the way he intends it. I don’t know why anyone would look to Nagin doing more or better any time in the future. Nothing in the past demonstrates he has stepped it up. It would seem all there is to look forward to is his departure from public office.

Adrastos andDangerblond have more.

Here are 2 parts of the transcript…

Nagin: My
disappointment is the way some in the media are handling me
personally…Our local newspaper for example had me pointing a gun at the
police chief, this got all over the internet, all over the nation, and
is now sitting on the most racist web sites in America, hate groups now
have that picture, so now I am personally more at risk, my family is
more at risk. 

And I’m a little
upset with this station cause you advertising about the ratings, about
what’s getting ready to happen with my schedule, you put my personal
schedule out there, I am coming back to the station and me and your
news director are going to be out in the parking lot having a good one
on one.

You do not put my family at risk.

Paulsen: This was a schedule from last year.

Nagin: I don’t care. That schedule has formal stuff on it. It has
patterns on it and now you have these Aryan race people focused on me
and you have some mental cases out in this community and you’re getting
ready to put my schedule out there. Where are the other elected
official’s schedule? Are you going to do a follow up on that? This has
gone beyond the point of reasonableness.

SNIP

Roberts:
People who are listening to you speak, people who care about you, may
be worried about you because of your emotional state.

Nagin: Because it’s crossed the line Sally, it’s gotten personal now. I
don’t appreciate the fact that I’m being exposed and my family is being
exposed now. That was not part of this deal.

Paulsen: You’ve gotten a lot of heat over the past couple of years. I’ve never seen you this emotional.

Nagin: Well because, your newscast, the local newspapers, are feeding
these awful, ugly talk shows that are feeding these blogs. If you go
look at some of these blogs out there and some of the stories that come
from the paper and you read the comments, it’s some of the most vile,
angry, people that I’ve ever seen in this community.

Paulsen: Are you concerned about your safety?

Nagin: I’ve got coverage. If somebody approach me wrong, I’m going to
cold cock them. That’s the bottom line. You can come with that
foolishness if you want, but you’ll see a side of Ray Nagin that you
haven’t seen.