Christie hits back at judicial pick critics

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is hitting back at conservative critics who’ve been running ads criticizing his judicial picks.

The Judicial Crisis Network ran TV and radio spots ahead of Christie’s recent trips to New Hampshire and Iowa, criticizing him for not appointing enough conservatives judges to his state’s Supreme Court.

Christie said Friday he had no respect for “Monday morning quarterbacks.” He calls the ad-runners “cowards.”

He says he wishes those advocates had gotten involved when he was trying to get the judges he wanted confirmed by a Democratic Senate. He says he’s added three conservatives to the state’s Supreme Court.

The Judicial Crisis Network says Christie is “back to his old form of name-calling and bullying.” It says it hasn’t supported “the cronies and hacks he has put forth as judicial conservatives.”