The primary bid for lieutenant governor by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, finally confirms that his ambition lies elsewhere than with his current constituents. But he still wants to be on the ballot to repeat his miserably failed role as state representative, in case voters can't be duped into handing him the higher office.

Why should we re-elect him here if he obviously yearns to be elsewhere? Metcalfe clearly has never had the stomach or competence to fight for his constituents, wasting their money instead on his own extremist, vindictive ideologies that have nothing to do with the schools, roads and economy in his district.

Ridiculed and reviled in his own district, he's also despised by many within the state Legislature, including a substantial number in his own party. He prefers rejecting other people's bills to being a productive legislator himself.

He's hung up or refused to return constituents' calls if he suspected that they disagree with him. He's made threatening phone calls to constituents who publicly objected to his hateful style.

Police have removed Metcalfe's goons from public polling places for bullying opponents.

Praised in 2008 by a Ku Klux Klan-affiliated group, he spouts religious and ethnic intolerance, homophobia and bigotry. He has opposed voter rights and efforts to fix voting-machine fraud.

He even managed to alienate a group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, referring to them as "traitors" and "Benedict Arnolds," simply because they had the temerity to provide public education about energy policies and national security.

We need to dump Metcalfe.