JACKSON --  Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, is proving that as speaker of the Mississippi House he is not afraid to exercise the power of his office to the fullest.

Late last year he removed Linda Whittington, D-Schlater, from  Education  to place a pro charter school legislator the key Committee.

And then last week he sent a Medicaid re-authorization bill to the Rules Committee to ensure its death to block the full House from having an opportunity to vote on the expansion of Medicaid. In the past, the measure would have gone to the Medicaid or Public Health committees.

Those two actions are perfectly within the speaker's power, but such power has seldom if ever been exercised by a speaker in recent memory.