TRENTON — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul wants to call a truce over beers with Gov. Chris Christie, but the governor said tonight he isn't having it.

The senator from Kentucky today invited Christie to "patch things up," after the Republicans — both possible contenders for the White House in 2016 — went at it in a dispute over national security and federal disaster aid that has dominated political discourse for days.

"We’re going to have to patch things up," Paul told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. "If we can sit down, I’m inviting him for a beer. Anytime he would like to come down and sit down at the pub right around the corner from the Senate and have a beer."

Hours later Christie took the airwaves on his monthly radio show on New Jersey 101.5 FM and was asked if he would agree to the beer summit.

"I’m running for re-election in New Jersey. I don’t really have time for that at the moment," Christie said. "If I find myself in Washington, I’ll certainly look him up, but I don’t suspect I’ll be there anytime soon."

Before dismissing Paul’s overture, Christie went out of his way to play down the spat that started last week when the governor was asked at a forum in Aspen about privacy concerns versus national security. But he also said he believes comments Paul made about him were "juvenile."

At the Aspen forum, Christie’s answer targeted politicians like Paul whom he blamed for a dangerous "strain of libertarianism" coursing through both parties.

But Christie noted he didn’t even bring up Paul, the moderator did.

"It really had nothing to do with Senator Paul, but Senator Paul wanted to make it about Senator Paul so that’s fine," Christie said.

The day after the Colorado forum, Paul accused Christie and the leaders of other states that received federal Sandy aid — which Paul voted against twice — of having a "gimme gimme gimme" attitude.

That prompted Christie to fire back Tuesday, with a ready-made attack on the amount of what he called "pork barrel spending" that Paul brings back to his home state. Paul turned the dig into a chance to appear on CNN, calling Christie the "king of bacon" for lobbying and spending billions in disaster relief dollars.

"I don’t know why Senator Paul is so out of whack about this," Christie said tonight. "At the end of the day I never called him any names, yet he called me names. I didn’t use any childish type phrases like gimme, gimme, gimme, he did. I just have to assume from that that he’s just trying to get attention. That’s fine. He’s not the first politician who’s used me to try to get attention in the national media and I’m sure he won’t be the last."

Always ready to mix it up, Christie has labeled his detractors all sort of colorful names. Last night, he said he’s "not offended by Senator Paul calling me names."

"I think it’s juvenile, but I’m not offended by it," he said.

Star-Ledger staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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