In his nearly 20 years in the General Assembly, state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has rarely wasted an opportunity to ostentatiously wrap himself in the flag.

Every year, like he did on Monday, Metcalfe throws a big Second Amendment party in the Capitol rotunda, yammering on about the sanctity of the nation's founding documents and the need to protect them from liberal Democratic communist socialists who are just waiting to take your rights away from you.

"The left has been going crazy; they are so over the top with attacks on our rights," Metcalfe said during Monday's group hysteria.

But here's the thing: It's a charade. It's an act. He doesn't mean a word of it.

Metcalfe plays a maverick and a patriot on TV. But when push comes to shove, the Butler County Republican, and chairman of the House State Government Committee, is the most dedicated protector of the Harrisburg swamp you're going to find.

On Monday, for the second time in a month, Metcalfe did an end-run around the voters, gutting a proposed constitutional amendment creating a Citizens Redistricting Commission that's supposed to minimize the role Harrisburg insiders play in the decennial redrawing of Pennsylvania's congressional and legislative districts.

As WITF-FM's Katie Meyer reported, Metcalfe called the surprise session to short-circuit efforts by supporters to force the bill out of the committee, where it's been marooned for months, and onto the House for a vote. As Meyer notes, a number of lawmakers complained they were only given 10 minutes' notice of the session.

The language Metcalfe stuffed into the bill Monday would, again, put six lawmakers in charge of redistricting - one more member than currently allowed by law. It would also strip the governor of his right to sign or veto the congressional map. And it would make the Commonwealth Court - not the Supreme Court - the final arbiter of any disputes, Meyer reported.

After gutting the bill to once again cut the voters out of the process, Metcalfe adjourned the meeting without bringing it to a vote. He says he'll keep doing it as long as supporters keep employing parliamentary tactics to force the bill onto the floor.

"If they want to debate a proposal, they will debate this proposal in this committee," he said, sounding a whole lot more like a tin-pot dictator than an elected representative of the people.

Metcalfe had earlier tried to justify this thoroughly undemocratic excess, grandly proclaiming that there "is no greater citizens commission than the General Assembly in this state."

Right.

So, instead of serving as a laboratory for reform, Metcalfe's committee has become the place where good ideas go to die.

And it's not the first time.

In 2016, for instance, in the face of bipartisan support from his colleagues, Metcalfe bottled up a bill that would have banned housing, employment and public accommodation discrimination against LGBTQ Pennsylvanians.

Metcalfe disingenuously called the legislation "very dangerous," employing the hateful 'bathroom bill' rhetoric used in other states to short-circuit similar protections.

Anyone else remember his fanciful, not actually happening, "illegal alien invasion?"

If Metcalfe were actually interested in reform; if he was really all about safeguarding the constitution and the integrity of the process, then he'd report the bill out of his committee and onto the floor. Sunlight being the best disinfectant, as former Gov. Tom Ridge was wont to say.

But he's not - and that's because he's deeply unserious about reforming Harrisburg and he's the worst kind of partisan.

Unconvinced? Read his own words:

"When they [Democrats] oppose us on my committee, they lose every vote and we win every vote! I block all substantive Democrat legislation sent to my committee and advance good Republican legislation!" Metcalfe wrote in a Facebook rant last month. "Liberals continue their lying attacks in an attempt to stop my work in defense of taxpayers and our liberty!"

Metcalfe's actions on the redistricting bill have led some reformers - and officials at the state Democratic Party - to call on GOP bosses to strip Metcalfe of his chairmanship. So far, they remain uninterested.

Gov. Tom Wolf did the same late last year when Metcalfe used homophobic language to complain about Rep. Matt Bradford, the committee's ranking Democrat, touching him on the arm.

The exchange, in case you missed it, went viral.

Yes, it's true that committee chairmen are supposed to act as the gatekepers for their respective panels. When they do their job well, they make sure that legislation headed to the floor has something approximating a consensus behind it.

Metcalfe has proven he cannot execute that baseline responsibility. And his actions this week, coupled with that Facebook rant, prove that he's outlived his utility as a chairman.

It's time for him to give up the gavel, and turn it over to someone who can fairly balance both partisanship and the interests of democracy.

The sooner, the better.