After more than a week of stories focused on his political relationship with Karl Rove and his financial relationship with a former subordinate in the U.S. Attorney's office, Chris Christie tried to get back on offense today in what is becoming a typically New Jersey tit-for-tat campaign.

On a conference call this afternoon Christie accused Democrat Jon Corzine of bringing a "trader's mentality" to the governor's office, with his campaign alleging that, as a Goldman Sachs executive, Corzine was "protecting and fighting for Enron's off-shore tax havens and enabling them to successfully scam the government." Christie said this action in lobbying the Clinton administration to preserve so-called Monthly Income Preferred Securities led to the "precipitous fall of Enron" and cost the state pension fund.

"He is what he is, he's a trader," Christie said. "Traders only worry about getting the trade done so they can get the benefit in their pocket. Whether that benefit is money at Goldman Sachs, or whether that benefit is now his political fortune, that's what Jon Corzine does."

Questions on the call, however, quickly turned to the loan Christie made to Michele Brown, who still serves in the U.S. Attorney's office. Christie said that there is nothing wrong with giving a subordinate a loan, while acknowledging he made a mistake in not disclosing interest payments on his financial disclosure. He also said media coverage of the matter has been "incredibly overdone" and the reaction to it "kind of crazy," accusing the Corzine campaign of "manufacturing fake outrage" about the issue.

"The time has come to make sure that we're having fair treatment across the board here," he said. "We're not having the same kind of conversation for the same people who are pushing this story from the governor's campaign. This is really hypocrisy."

UPDATE: Check out the Corzine camp's response after the jump.