New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie has garnered much of his fame in the last year by blaming teachers for all the economic ills of his state. Endless YouTube videos show the governor taking on teachers and accusing them of bringing in lavish paychecks on the backs of taxpayers.

Well, his fiscally conservative rants seem a bit hollow today. Turns out, he took a state helicopter to his kid’s baseball game on Tuesday and lots of folks are up in arms.

“Gov. Christie obviously doesn’t include himself in his hollow call for shared sacrifice,” Democratic state Assemblyman Paul Moriarty told the Associated Press.

Yes, this is all part of the political gotcha game that we’ve all come to know and love, but it also points to an odd conundrum for me, a labor columnist and blogger.

I’m not big on politicians attacking hard-working people, especially teachers, so his apparent hypocrisy shows how empty his attacks have been.

But I’m also going to go out on a limb here and defend the guy, who is not just a governor but a father. (more…)