HARRISBURG — There’s never a dull moment with state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the outspoken conservative from Cranberry.

Just a few days after he caused an uproar by calling some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans “traitors” for warning about climate change, radio ads are being run on Pittsburgh stations, urging listeners to call his office and demand that he resign from the Legislature.

But the Republican flame-thrower said he won’t quit and blamed the harsh radio attacks on groups such as Operation Free, VoteVets.org and liberal billionaire George Soros, all of whom, Mr. Metcalfe claimed, have a “radical leftist” political agenda.

Mr. Metcalfe, a military veteran himself, contended that any veteran who lends their name “to promote the leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change, in an effort to control more of the wealth created in our economy … is a traitor to the oath he or she took to defend the Constitution of our great nation!”

The new radio ad, running on KDKA and other stations, opens with a narrator saying sternly, “Traitors — that’s what state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe called decorated Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.”

The announcer then says that Mr. Metcalfe had attacked “members of Operation Free, veterans whose goal is to make America more secure with clean energy and cut the flow of oil dollars to those who would do us harm.”

The ad also has Pittsburgh veteran Chuck Tyler saying, “Rep. Metcalfe, a lot of my friends never made it home from Iraq. Dishonoring us dishonors their memory. We deserve better and so does Pennsylvania.”

Mr. Tyler also says, “I’m not a traitor, sir. I’m just an American doing what’s right for my country.”

Then the narrator urges listeners to call Mr. Metcalfe, giving his Cranberry office phone, “and tell him to resign. Attacking America’s patriots is the most unpatriotic thing you can do.”

The narrator says the ad is “a message from Operation Free, paid for by Vote Vets Action Fund.”

Mr. Metcalfe fired back yesterday in his usual feisty manner, claiming he’s being assailed “because my comments have exposed that Operation Free’s radical leftist agenda has absolutely nothing to do with America’s national security (or) energy independence.”

He said he is a U.S. Army veteran “whose honorable service record between 1980-84 includes defending the West German border during the height of the Cold War.”

He accused Vote Vets of supporting “a far-left group of state and national politicians, including U.S. Congressman John Murtha.”

In his statement, Mr. Metcalfe said he “stands by my original comments” about Operation Free.

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