BARNEGAT - Maybe at risk of appearing volatile for the wrong reasons, Gov. Chris Christie retaliated this afternoon.

A day after state Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) fired back from the receiving end of Christie's observation that the octogenerian appears angry, Christie made sure everyone understood he also harbors deep-seated emotions when it comes to the economy.

Lautenberg explained that economic stagnation does, in fact, make him angry.

Christie didn't say he was angry, just passionate.

"Putting people back to work is an emotional issue for me," the governor told a crowd of supporters, local wharf types calling for him to run for president mixed in with dignified-looking retirees, including the governor's father, who got a bear hug as soon as the younger Christie landed shoreside for a bill signing.

The governor said he wants to boost the bay's health and revitalize Ocean County as an economic engine, in his words, on the cusp of general election season, at the governor's most overwhelmingly devoted base, the county that catapulted him past Jon Corzine in 2009 with huge turnout numbers.

Even though it was base country, in the aftermath of a GOP-oriented tumbleweed tour of the western reaches of the country, starting from Iowa and including Wyoming and Nevada, Christie reasserted his dedication to bipartisanship.

Assemblyman Dan Benson, (D-14), Hamilton, was close at hand as Christie noted that "Regardless of party, I'm going to make that (job creation) happen."

Jeff Tittle, executive director of the Sierra Club, called Christie's Barnegat Bay snapshot nothing more than political grandstanding.

"The money in that bill has always been there based on federal rules," said a completely unimpressed Tittle. "He's trying to appear green. This is Dr. Feel Good's tour of New Jersey, the same governor who vetoed good bills, one that would have cleaned up the bay in two years."