Who are those ‘House leaders?’

As you might have seen on today’s page, Paul Hyde of The Greenville News took to task "Three top House leaders" without naming them. He’s apparently referring to the House conference committee members on the budget: Ways and Means Chairman Dan Cooper, Rep. Tracy Edge and Rep. Denny Neilson. He says that they "just decided not to show up for work two days last week."

It’s true that every individual is ultimately responsible for his or her own behavior. But the fact is that the three conferees didn’t actually "just decide" not to negotiate details of the budget. They were told not to by House Speaker Bobby Harrell.

Or so I’m told, and it stands to reason. Unless Bobby has been denouncing them publicly for doing this, and I somehow missed it.