https://twitter.com/RepTimMurphy/status/688790423050006528

Rep. Tim Murphy has been representing Pennsylvania’s 18th district since 2003. He has a background as a practicing psychologist and has been outspoken on pro-life issues, making accusations currently being leveled against him surprising, though he wouldn’t be the first politician to have a completely fake public persona. Reading the articles published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette one gets the the impression of a man in a downward spiral and emotional breakdown.

A woman with whom Murphy admits to having an extramarital affair confronted him after an anti-abortion post on his Facebook page. She claimed he encouraged her to get an abortion when she believed she had become pregnant by him.

A text message sent in January to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy by a woman with whom he had an extra-marital relationship took him to task for an anti-abortion statement posted on Facebook from his office’s public account.

“And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.

A text from Mr. Murphy’s cell phone number that same day in response says, “I get what you say about my March for life messages. I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”

The congressman has been lauded by the Family Research Council, for his stance on abortion, as well as for family values, generally. He also has been endorsed by LifePAC, which opposes abortion rights, and is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, an affiliation that is often cited by his office.

The text message exchange was included among a series of documents obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Ms. Edwards declined to comment on the documents.

Repeated voice mail messages left on Mr. Murphy’s cell phone on Tuesday were not returned.

Abortion hypocrisy would by no means make him unique in Washington, but that is not the only dark cloud hovering over this congressman.

His chief of staff wrote a memo detailing the Congressman’s erratic and unstable behavior which has led to inordinate turnover in his staff, many of whom are afraid of him.

Another — a six-page memo to Mr. Murphy purportedly written by his chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk — described a hostile workplace in which Mr. Murphy repeatedly denigrated employees, threatened them and created a state of “terror.”

Ms. Mosychuk could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts Tuesday to speak with her. A staff member in Mr. Murphy’s office said the congressman’s communications director, Carly Atchison, was also unavailable after apparently conferring with Ms. Atchison.

“We have received your message and goodbye,” the staffer said before hanging up.

The June 8 memo, titled “Office Conduct and Behavior: Harassment/Legal Compliance,” says that there had been an “ongoing and ever more pronounced pattern of sustained inappropriate behavior” from the congressman.

Mosychuk wrote about fearing for her life as a passenger while the Congressman texted and played YouTube videos on his iPad while driving erratically through a torrential rainstorm as well as what can charitably be described as anger management problems.

The memo criticized his “inability to hire and retain competent staff, abysmal office morale,” as well as “hostile, erratic, unstable, angry, aggressive and abusive behavior.”

According to the memo, the office has had nearly 100 percent staff turnover in one year and that the office has lost more than 100 staffers since Ms. Mosychuk started working with Mr. Murphy. Ms. Mosychuk began working with him in 2003.

The memo says that its purpose was to detail the problems as they related to the office manual as well as the Congressional Accountability Act and seek corrective action.

The memo recounted events from June 2 and June 5 involving a visit Mr. Murphy made to his home district.

“You were storming around as we walked in, and as we sat down for prep — having just arrived literally moments ago — you started in on the [legislative director] and verbally abused him, harassed him, chastised him and criticized all his work products. You called many of the work products that he literally gave up his weekend to produce as ‘useless.’ You pushed other documents off the table onto the floor because they weren’t what you wanted. Then you got angry and demanded we find the documents that you had just thrown on the ground.”

This is not describing the actions of a mentally healthy but demanding boss. This is an account of someone who is completely out of control.

If the memo is truthful, the Congressman has serious issues in addition to being a hypocrite.