HILLSBOROUGH – A day after U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez voted no on the national debt deal, Gov. Chris Christie wailed on Lautenberg in particular, saying he continues to be puzzled by what he sees as the senator’s rhetoric.

“His tone is just awful,” said the governor, who also described Lautenberg as regularly “angry,” and questioned how a man in his 80s could sustain the rage.

In response to Christie, Lautenberg admitted he was angry - and with good reason. 

“I think a lot of Americans are angry right now and should be," the senator said. "This deal threatens to take away seats from young children in Head Start, home heating assistance from struggling families and cops from our streets. This may not faze the governor, but it sure makes me angry.”

The senatorial size-up followed Christie's own self-assessment at an open space preservation bill signing, in which the governor reveled in cross-the-aisle warmth with Democratic Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, (D-17), Franklin, and Assemblyman Dan Benson, (D-14), Hamilton, in the bill signing shot.

"It's important to note that this is an example of bipartisanship," the governor observed. "The preservation of our quality of life is not a Democrat or a Republican issues." 

Christie refused to riff on why Menendez and Lautenberg both voted against the debt deal, mentioning only that it was easy to vote no when the Democratic Party already had the requisite votes to pass a bill the White House needed rammed.

Lautenberg and Menendez have been frequent critics of the governor’s, challenging Christie’s decision to crush the access to the region’s core (ARC) tunnel project and the governor’s general gut and cut approach to government, in their view.

Christie last year during the 2011 election cycle called the senators the twins of big government to a jeering GOP crowd in Hamilton.

Talks have been a bust between the senators and the governor, according to sources, who describe scheduled meetings that have either fallen through or ended up being red-faced close rangers, most specifically in one instance between Menendez and Christie.

As recently as last Friday, Lautenberg walked into Christie’s wheelhouse when he sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton requesting that the feds look into how Essex County awarded a multimillion-dollar annual contract for an immigration detention center, which the New York Times reported may have favored Christie confidante Bill Palatucci.

Yesterday, the senator savaged the rightward reaches of the GOP in his assessment of the debt deal process.

“This legislation was a shakedown, not a compromise," Lautenberg said. "Tea Party Republicans held our country hostage until their ideological demands were met, with little regard for what it will mean for the average American family.  Our debt ceiling had to be raised – as was done 18 times under President Reagan and seven times under President George W. Bush – but it shouldn’t be done in a way that diminishes access to education and health care, a cleaner environment, or homeland security.”