Conservative Babylon

What is it with College Republicans? Karl Brabenec and Jimmy Karalis… Matthew Elliott… Robert Cahaly…

And now there’s Robert F. “Bobby” Kaufmann, a dimpled little lad fresh out of the presidency of the Iowa Federation Of College Republicans (here’s a picture from 2007, when he looked about twelve years old, instead of twelve-and-a-half, as he does now).

This kid is the son of Iowa House Speaker Jeff Kaufmann — no prize himself (he’s as homophobic as his one-time boss, Bob Vander Plaats (the Maggie Gallagher of Iowa), albeit a tad smarter, distancing himself from BVP’s frothing anti-gay tirades) — who is running for Daddy’s seat in the Iowa House, now that Daddy has decided not to run again.

Sonny Bob had no trouble securing the Republican nomination — not because he’s any great shakes (if anybody can tell us what he actually stands for, we’d appreciate it), but because there were no other Republicans running. It’s going to be a more interesting race now that he’s pleaded guilty to public intoxication. Busted at a bar and blowing a breath test well above the legal limit (which was inadmissable — why didn’t the cops insist on a blood test, or a pee test?), Little Bobby was given a year’s probation, and if he’s a good boy, his record will be expunged.

Still, it’s not an actual conviction. The West Branch Times explains that Bobby…

… pleaded guilty in late February to public intoxication but has not been convicted on the simple misdemeanor charge. Instead he has received a “deferred judgment.” …

The deferred judgment means that the 26-year-old will serve a year on probation and, if he breaks no further laws, the case will be removed from his record.

Kaufmann said that he initially pleaded guilty to the charge “not knowing his legal rights,” but his attorney helped him see that he could plead guilty yet avoid conviction under a deferred judgment.

“Not knowing his legal rights”? Gee, that’s a swell start for somebody who wants to be a lawmaker.

But, wait! There’s more! Trish Nelson over at Blog for Iowa writes:

So this candidate will be on probation while he is trying to get elected to public office. Has that ever happened?

BFIA went to the online court records at www.iowacourts.gov and found that Kaufmann has received 17 convictions over the span of 10 years. We’ve reposted the information below but anyone can go and look it up. It’s public information.

While it is understood that a mishap here and there can happen to anyone, and we all have gotten the occasional speeding ticket, this is quite an impressive list of legal run-ins by any standard. Except for the public intoxication incident, running the stop/yield sign, and speeding 16-20 miles over the limit a couple of times, most of these are minor traffic violations. But still. It seems to us that a person would really have to be trying to have this many citations.

The point is, is this the track record of someone who is prepared to handle the pressures and responsibilities of holding public office? Just sayin’. …

And well said, too. We checked out the court site and couldn’t find anything (its search function is not the most intuitive on the Web), but if Ms. Nelson has her data correct, she’s quite right to wonder if Young Master Bobby is “is prepared to handle the pressures and responsibilities of holding public office.” To put it more directly, we wonder if Kaufmann, like all College Republicans, doesn’t need to simply grow up.

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