Months away from any official campaign announcements two of the potential Republican presidential candidates for 2016 are fighting with each other as if it was mid-way through the race as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., have turned their disagreement personal, according to Time.
The beef started when Christie took Paul, along with other Tea Party Republicans, to task over their opposition to the National Security Agency's surveillance program, according to U.S. News and World Report.
"You can name any number of people and he's [Paul's] one of them," Christie said. "These esoteric, intellectual debates - I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation. And they won't, because that's a much tougher conversation to have."
Paul immediately counter-attacked Christie.
"They're precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending, and their 'Gimme, gimme gimme - give me all my Sandy money now,'" Paul said. "Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense."
Instead of ending the war of words there Christie decided to respond and escalate things by pointing out that New Jersey sends more money to the federal government in taxes than it receives, a claim that Kentucky cannot make, according to Time.
"So if Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he's going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start looking at cutting the pork barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky, at $1.51 for every $1.00 and not look at New Jersey, where we get $0.61 for every $1.00," Christie said. "So maybe Senator Paul could - could, you know, deal with that when he's trying to deal with the reduction of spending on the federal side. But I doubt he would, because most Washington politicians only care about bringing home the bacon so that they can get reelected."
Paul went on CNN Tuesday night where he responded to Christie and also gave the New Jersey governor a nickname that is bound to stick, the king of bacon.
"This is the king of bacon talking about bacon," Paul said. "You know, we have two military bases in Kentucky. And is Governor Christie recommending that we shut down our military bases?"
Paul went on to criticize Christie for picking a fight with another Republican at a time when the Republican Party is barely able to survive in the northeast portion of the country. Paul almost went as far as to call himself the savior of the party in his remarks, according to Time.
"I'm the one trying to grow the party by talking about liberation ideas of privacy and the Internet," Paul said. "Attacking me isn't helping the party. He's hurting the party. Why would you want to pick a fight with the one guy who has a chance to grow the party by appealing to the youth and appealing to people who would like to see a more moderate and less aggressive foreign policy?"
It looks like the spat is over for now although it wouldn't surprise anyone if the outspoken Christie started things up again. Christie thinks that he struck a nerve with his attack on Paul, according to the Washington Times.
"You know, his response seems that he has something personal against me, but that's OK," Christie said. "He can just get in line on that front."
