John Rice Carter: “I operated as a trial judge in Texas for about 21 years, and we had rules in the court at that time that if the opposing…”

“I operated as a trial judge in Texas for about 21 years, and we had rules in the court at that time that if the opposing counsel for any purpose attacked or impugned the honesty or integrity of another member or got vicious and attacked them in any form or fashion, we could correct them; and if they continued in that type of style, we could actually fine them. It has been my limited experience here in Congress that if we were able to allow the Chair to issue such fines, we could probably balance the budget here in Congress without much problem at all. And I think we have seen a lot of that here today with the use of some terms like 'liar' that I have heard here used today. I just as an aside wanted to say that. Back about a year-and-a-half ago, I was in a meeting in Houston, Texas. As I said, I have been a trial judge. Before the meeting, I had an undercover Department of Public Safety officer come to me at this meeting and say he would like to talk to me in private for just a minute; and I went in and talked to him. He said, Judge, I want to tell you about something. There is something going on here in Houston that I think you ought to know about it. There is a gang of Middle Eastern folks that are stealing baby formula from our local supermarkets and selling it to the WIC program.”