Dems fire away at Christie

Fireworks at a House subcommittee hearing in which Democrats are trying to nail New Jersey governor candidate Chris Christie for what they say was a shady deal that benefited his one-time boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) accused Christie of making a company “an offer it couldn’t refuse” by asking them to approve overseers that they didn’t clearly have the ability to refuse.

Christie shot back quickly, suggesting Cohen was impugning Italian-Americans with a Mafia reference.

“That is an ethnically insensitive comment by you, first of all, to an Italian-American,” Christie said.

Update 3:44 p.m.: Post updated to reflect Christie’s full quote. See the full story for more details.