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A veteran Justice Department lawyer says that Attorney General Eric Holder has politicized the department in a way he hadnt seen before. In short, Holder is the worst person to hold the position of attorney general since the disgraced John Mitchell.

Now in his sixth year as attorney general, Holder has increasingly tilted the department in an ideological direction. Its one thing to emphasize President Obamas legal priorities. Its quite another to decide not to enforce certain federal laws such as the ban on marijuana or urge state attorney generals to refuse to defend local laws on same-sex marriage. Legal changes are achieved through legislation, not through a sudden whim not to enforce them. No other attorney general has acted in this manner.

Holder clearly believes he has the inherent power to politicize his department. When House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte asked him last week whether he believed there were any limits to the administrations prosecutorial discretion. There is a vast amount of discretion that a president has and more specifically that an attorney general has, Holder responded.

But courts have frequently disagreed with Holders interpretations of the law. Just last week, a US District Court judge issued an order denying Justices request for veto power over school-choice scholarships awarded to students by the state of Louisiana. Justice had sued Louisiana last August seeking an injunction to stop it from distributing school vouchers to kids seeking to escape failing schools using the pretext of decades-old desegregation orders. Justices action is pure politics, driven by the fact that Democrats are beholden to teachers unions.

Justices ideological zealotry is on display across a host of other issues.

It stopped asking states that accepted federal funds for election machine upgrades to comply with provisions requiring them to clean up their voter rolls. It used a radical interpretation of civil-rights laws to sue school districts over dress codes. It launched an unprecedented crusade against government leaks by targeting The Associated Press and Fox News James Rosen while at the same time it refused to pursue any leaks of classified material that likely came from the White House and were clearly intended to burnish the presidents image.

Last week, Congress recommended that Holders office pursue a criminal investigation against Lois Lerner, the IRS official who admitted that conservative groups were targeted for added scrutiny. Lerner has repeatedly taken the Fifth even as she proclaims her innocence.

But does anyone believe the attorney general will seriously investigate this?

Of course, when you call Holder out on his biases and selective enforcement, he cries racism.

Last Tuesday, Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing. He got into a stormy exchange with Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican and a former chief justice of the Texas Court of Appeals. Gohmert had read a Fifth Circuit court opinion noting how Justice had made available 9,600 summaries of transcripts of sensitive conversations to attorneys for the terrorists.

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For Attorney General Eric Holder, Justice is for Democrats only

April 8, 2014: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

A Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation that would cut off pay to Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal officials who have been held in contempt of Congress.

Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, introduced the"Contempt Act" on Tuesday, less than a week after alluding to the measure during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing where Holder faced criticism from GOP lawmakers.

"The American people should not be footing the bill for federal employees who stonewall Congress or rewarding government officials bad behavior," Farenthold said in a statement. "If the average American failed to do his or her job, he or she would hardly be rewarded."

Under the proposal, the contempt resolution would have to be adopted by either the House or Senate for the official to lose their pay. The GOP-led House voted in 2012 to hold Holder in contempt for failing to provide key information on Operation Fast and Furious.

The House Oversight Committee voted last week to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at a pair of hearings about the agency's political targeting scandal.

Farenthold's bill would not apply to Lerner, who retired last fall.

"While Ms. Lerner has since retired from the IRS, my bill will at least prevent current and future federal employees, like [Holder], from continuing to collect their taxpayer-paid salaries while held in contempt of Congress," Farenthold said.

The contempt measure against Lerner heads next to the House floor. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, predicted last week that unless Lerner agrees to cooperate with the targeting scandal probe, the full House will support contempt.

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GOP legislation would cut off Holder's salary

"Yeah, I certainly have said in my four, five, whatever number confirmation hearings I've had that you fill out the forms, that I had 'youthful experimentation' - I think was the phrase that we were told to use - when I was in college."

Mr Holder joins a growing list of senior American officials who have admitted to drug use in their past, including President Barack Obama, who has said he smoked marijuana at high school.

Around half of the prisoners in US jails are incarcerated for drug offences, with arrests for marijuana possession surpassing those for all violent crimes combined.

A study by the the Federal Bureau of Investigation has found that an American is arrested for a marijuana-related offence every 42 seconds on average.

Mr Holder said: "Well, I'll tell you, as a former judge, I had to put in jail substantial numbers of young people for possessory drug offences, and it was not from the perspective I had as a judge necessarily a good use of law enforcement resources.

"When I became US attorney we put in place certain guidelines so that people would not end up, especially young people, with criminal records and all that then implies for them."

Mr Holder added that while he felt positive about the way legalisation was proceeding in Colorado and Washington, it was unclear if the rest of the US would follow suit.

"I think it's hard to tell," he said. "I think there might have been a burst of feeling that what happened in Washington and Colorado was going to be soon replicated across the country.

"I'm not sure that is necessarily the case. I think a lot of states are going to be looking to see what happens in Washington, what happens in Colorado before those decisions are made in substantial parts of the country.

"The federal government is not going to be involved in the prosecution of small-time, possessory drug cases, but we never were."

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US Attorney General Eric Holder admits using marijuana

Politics justice Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at a press conference on April 1, 2014 in New York. Andrew BurtonGetty Images

Attorney General Eric Holder called on Congress Tuesday to approve $15 million of special funds to help train law enforcement for mass shooting situations.

Holders request comes in the wake of recent shootings at Fort Hood in Texas and a Jewish Community Center in Kansas amid a growing sense that mass shootings are on the rise in the United States. Three people were killed in each shooting. Holder said active shooter incidents have tripled in frequency since 2009.

Today, I am urging Congress to approve President Obamas request for $15 million for active shooter training and other officer safety initiatives, Holder said in a recorded statement. This critical funding would help the Justice Department ensure that Americas police officers have the tools and guidance they need to effectively respond to active shooter incidents whenever and wherever they arise.

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Holder Seeks $15 Million to Train Cops for Mass Shootings