Once.

That's the number of times that House Democrats say they've successfully managed to get a bill out of the chamber's State Government Committee in the eight years that Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the notoriously touch-averse Republican from Butler County, has held the reins.

And it was ... a land-transfer bill.

In 2014.

"It's a black hole," fumes House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody.

"It's outrageous," chimes in Rep. Dan Frankel.

The two Pittsburgh pols, both Democrats, summoned Capitol reporters to Dermody's fourth-floor office on Monday for a bit of primal scream therapy on Metcalfe, the iron-fisted, Commandant of Nyet from Cranberry Township, who's admitted that nothing gives him greater joy than stymying Democrats.

"I block all substantive Democrat legislation sent to my committee and advance good Republican legislation!" Metcalfe wrote in a truly epic Facebook rant last month. "Liberals continue their lying attacks in an attempt to stop my work in defense of taxpayers and our liberty."

Fed up with Metcalfe's "Red Skull of Steelers Country" act, Democrats moved last week to reintroduce more than 80 bills that Metcalfe bottled up in his committee this year.

The trapped bills include a redistricting reform measure (more on that in a minute) and legislation that would ban housing, employment and public accommodation discrimination against LGBTQ Pennsylvanians (even more on that, too).

Dermody and his colleagues have asked House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, to refer the bills to any committee but Metcalfe's in the hope that they'll get a fair hearing and a vote. That hasn't happened yet.

Turzai's spokesman, Neal Lesher, confirmed that his boss had received the Democrats' reintroduced bills, and that staff was "reviewing them," but they "have not made any decisions regarding their referral yet."

Lesher added that Republicans "have moved roughly an equal amount of Democratic bills through the House each session under our leadership as the Democrats moved Republican bills when they were in the majority."

In case you're tuning in late, Metcalfe sent Democrats over the edge last week when, for the second time in a month, he gutted a redistricting reform bill that's supposed to put citizens in the driver's seat, and replaced it with language that gives all the power back to lawmakers.

Democrats are also fuming over Metcalfe's unwillingness to move that LGBTQ anti-discrimination bill, even though the GOP's endorsed candidate for governor, Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York; Wagner's primary rival Laura Ellsworth, the state's business community and Gov. Tom Wolf all support it.

They're also bristling under Metcalfe's heavy-handed management style, which sees him frequently cut off Democratic lawmakers and occasionally bring security into meetings.

In his Facebook rant, Metcalfe referred to one committee member, Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, as a "lying homosexual," even as he dismissed "liberal loser Democrat legislators," who serve on his committee.

Lesher said he didn't know if Turzai had spoken to Metcalfe about the Democrats' complaints about his behavior.

Dermody and Frankel readily admitted that Monday that politics isn't cricket. And, that if they ran the circus, there's every chance they'd be playing hardball with Republicans as well.

But, says Frankel, committees tend to be a tad more collegial than the rock 'em-sock 'em debate on the House floor, and most committee chairmen at least pay lip service to the notion of bipartisan cooperation.

"I've never seen a committee run like this," Frankel said.

Meanwhile, Metcalfe's tactics have netted him a primary challenger back home.

Daniel Smith Jr., a longtime Metcalfe critic, who is also openly gay, is one of two Democrats running in the May 15 primary.

A one-time Republican, Smith told Pittsburgh City Paper that Metcalfe's viral video moment, the one where he blew up at Rep. Matt Bradford during a committee meeting for touching him on the arm, finally convinced him to get into the race.

"The moment he had at the committee meeting, that was the straw that broke the camel's back," Smith told City Paper. "Yes, what [Metcalfe] said pissed me off. But I saw the rest of the representatives in the meeting shake their heads. And I was thinking, 'How does a district keep voting for this person?' Then I thought, I needed to do something."

With Republicans apparently unwilling to bring Metcalfe to heel, Smith's something may be a start - assuming he survives the primary.