Representative Tim Murphy (R-PA) was caught with his pants down this week after reports surfaced that he pressured his mistress to get an abortion. Murphy can be counted among the "pro-life" crowd and he even voted for the GOP bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks.
Asking his mistress to get an abortion while trying to ban abortion in Congress was certainly awkward for Murphy, but that's apparently not the reason he's resigning.
According to Politico, Murphy was pushed out by his Republican colleagues, but not because he's a hypocrite. They wanted him to resign so they wouldn't have to launch an ethics probe of his office.
Multiple top House Republicans during the past 24 hours pressured Murphy to resign once it became clear that the House Ethics Committee might have to investigate allegations tied to his reported mistreatment of staffers. Numerous GOP sources were aware of systemic problems in Murphy’s office, including high staff turnover, which had been the topic of gossip and speculation for years.
The Post-Gazette had reported on a June 2017 memo in which Murphy’s longtime chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, warned the Pennsylvania Republican that he was mistreating and “harassing” staff, causing 100 percent turnover.
Murphy and his chief of staff allegedly screamed at their staffers on a regular basis.
According to these aides, Mosychuk regularly engaged in brutal verbal abuse of lower-ranking aides, from calling aides “worthless” and their work “garbage” to asking derisively, “Do you or do you not have a fucking college degree?”
Ex-staffers said Mosychuk kept white noise machines throughout Murphy’s congressional office so constituents waiting in the front room couldn’t hear her screaming.
In addition to the abuse behavior in Murphy's office, the House Ethics Committee had reason to believe Murphy was paying his chief of stuff Susan Mosychuk more money than is allowed under House rules.
Murphy was also reportedly having an affair with Mosychuk, but she is not the mistress that he pressured into getting an abortion. That was apparently a different woman.
One wonders how many other "family values" congressmen exhibit similar behavior but simply haven't been caught yet.