“If you took all the fools out of the Texas Legislature (Lege), it wouldn’t be a representative body” is a remark that has been cited in print since at least 1986. Texas writer Molly Ivins (1944-2007) often used the line, crediting Texas Senator Carl A. Parker of Port Arthur.
   
   
The Parker Law Firm—Senator Carl A. Parker
Born and reared in Port Arthur, Texas, Senator Carl A. Parker has been licensed since 1958 and practices Law from both of his Port Arthur and Austin offices. He is a former State Senator with 32 years legislative experience, he is an active trial lawyer who has won multi-verdicts in an excess of a million dollars, he has handled virtually every type of case from minor cases to capital murder and federal crimes; representation of foreign countries, and business litigation. He is presently accepting civil, criminal, commercial, and domestic law cases.
   
Google Books
January 1986, Texas Monthly,“The Texas Watergate” by Molly Ivins,  pg. 284, col. 3:
Besides, if we took all the fools out of the Texas Legislature, it wouldn’t be a representative body anymore.
     
Google Books
Texas in transition
Edited by Michael L. Gillette; Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.; Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
Austin, TX: Lyndon Baines Johnson Library : Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
1986
Pg. ?:
Ivins said she also agreed with state Sen. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur, that “if you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it would no longer be a representative body.”
 
Google Books
Molly Ivins can’t say that, can she?
By Molly Ivins
New York, NY: Vintage Books
1992
Pg. 166:
One can always dismiss the entire Legislature as a particularly delporable set of Texans, but as Carl Parker observes, if you took all the fools out of the Lege, it wouldn’t be a representative body anymore.
     
28 March 1993, San Antonio (TX) Express-News, “Lawmaker caught in drug bust adds chapter to legislative tales”:
Sen. Carl Parker often says: “If you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it wouldn’t be a representative body anymore.”
   
7 September 1993, Kerrville (TX) Times, “Ike Harris will be missed around Capitol” by Molly Ivins, pg. 4A, cols. 2-3:
I know there is a puritanical streak, even here in Texas, that affects to find such conduct shocking in a public official, but as Sen. Carl Parker likes to point out, if you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it wouldn’t be a representative body anymore;...
 
Google Books
Who Let the Dogs In?:
Incredible Political Animals I Have Known
By Molly Ivins
New York, NY: Random House
2004
Pg. ?:
As former state senator Carl Parker used to say, “If you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it wouldn’t be a representative body anymore.”