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Wesley Pruden

Wesley Pruden

wpruden@washingtontimes.com

Wesley Pruden would have wanted to spend his final hours at his keyboard, deftly deflating the pompous, entitled and arrogant of the political establishment, and he came awfully close. The venerable Washington Times editor, columnist and journalism institution was found dead July 17, 2019, at his home, after putting in a full day at the newsroom on New York Avenue in Northeast D.C., where he had worked since 1982, four months after the newspaper's founding. He was 83.
His remarkable career began 67 years ago as a teenage copy boy in Arkansas, making him among the few old-school newsmen whose sharp political acumen, elegant writing style, and keen sense of the absurd allowed him to remain as relevant in the digital age as he was in the days when the rumpled shirts of reporters were splattered with ink.
To read his obituary, please CLICK HERE

Articles by Wesley Pruden

President Trump. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Donald Trump Middle East trip grants opportunity

The Donald finally catches a break. His trip to the Middle East was planned weeks ago, long before the sacking of James Comey and the media transformation of the voluble sackee from goat to hero. The opportunity to get out of Dodge arrived just in time.

May 22, 2017
President Donald Trump smiles as he listens to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, speak during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Destroying Donald Trump all that matters to some

Now anything goes. All restraints are loosened, all self-discipline trashed. There's no cure or even treatment for Trump Derangement Syndrome, a disease as wild and as swiftly lethal as anything imported from the Ebola River valley of the dark continent. The rules and taboos that once guided even the sleaziest excuse for a newspaper no longer apply.

May 18, 2017
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 4, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) ** FILE **

Democratic dreams of retaking Congress are a fantasy

If you're a Democrat, lost in a restoration fantasy of taking over the Congress next year, now is the time to dream big. Reality, with its talent for smashing the fanciful, will arrive soon enough.

May 15, 2017
In this Wednesday, May 3, 2017, file photo, then-FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. President Donald Trump abruptly fired Comey on May 9, ousting the nation's top law enforcement official in the midst of an investigation into whether Trump's campaign had ties to Russia's election meddling.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ** FILE **

James Comey firing shows he was a lousy politician

James Comey is a good lawyer. He was a good judge. Everyone says so, so it must be true. But he's a lousy politician, and he grew too big for his britches. He forgot who he was, and paid dearly.

May 11, 2017
Emmanuel Macron (Associated Press)

Emmanuel Macron win could give Hillary Clinton a lesson

The good news for the elites in the land of the free and the home of the brave, driven to the point of madness by the success of Donald Trump, is that they finally have something to cheer. The not-so-good news is that the something to cheer is not here, but in France.

May 8, 2017
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, finally a winner. (Associated Press)

Obamacare repeal vote a reprieve for the Republicans

The Republicans in the House finally did what they said they wanted to come to Washington to do. They voted Thursday to repeal Obamacare, but by the slimmest of margins. Speaker Paul D. Ryan needed 216 votes and he turned out 217.

May 4, 2017
Bob Woodward, left, talks with Carl Bernstein during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, Saturday, April 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Lying press throws itself a pity party

There was a broken heart for every wine glass and beer bottle at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, where the White House Correspondents Association dined at their slimmed-down annual imitation of Hollywood glitz, grandeur and glamour.

May 1, 2017
Demonstrators sharing opposing views argue during a rally Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. Demonstrators gathered near the University of California, Berkeley campus amid a strong police presence and rallied to show support for free speech and condemn the views of Ann Coulter and her supporters. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

First Amendment under attack by liberals

The only thing anyone is allowed to hear on campus is a slogan. Thinking is so 20th century (and early 20th century at that). The adults paid to be in charge have retreated to a safe place, where never is heard an encouraging word and the skies are cloudy all day.

April 27, 2017
Marine Le Pen (Associated Press)

Marine Le Pen victory likely shaky in runoff

The French easily embrace contradiction and chaos. It's what makes their politics work: "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose," and they said it first: "The more things change, the more they stay the same." The Sunday national election in France proved it again.

April 24, 2017
Bill O'Reilly (Associated Press)

Murdoch sons defang Fox by ousting O’Reilly

The famous bimbo eruptions are back (as if they had ever really gone away), and for once Bubba appears to be in the clear. No new accusations of rude behavior have been lodged against him.

April 20, 2017
Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Donald Trump must be taken seriously

If chaos is the sign of growth -- and sometimes that's a fair description of progress -- Donald Trump is on course to build an administration that can survive the fits, starts and mistakes of a drawn-out opening night.

April 13, 2017
President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, April 6, 2017, after the U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Mainstream media loses its mind over Susan Rice

Just about the time the fever on the nut left seems to be subsiding there's another outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Normal-looking folk who sound like they escaped a Marx Bros. movie fall into a relapse.

April 6, 2017
Kim Jong-un (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Kim Jong-un a danger with nukes

Kim Jong-un may be "a crazy fat kid" with a goofy haircut, but he is doing what his father and his grandfather never could. With nuclear weapons to play with, he frightens the West enough to make it start thinking about doing something about the most dangerous crazy fat kid on earth.

April 3, 2017
The home of Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, is seen Friday, March 24, 2017, in Washington. Neighbors of Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children have groused that sidewalks have been closed, public parking overrun and that the family and their staff can't even be bothered to learn the trash pickup schedule outside their $5.5-million home.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Finding parking spaces in Washington, D.C.

Politics is serious business in Washington. Detroit is puzzling over how to make SUVs bigger. Hollywood is worried over how a screenwriters' strike will curtail production of tinsel in Hollywood.

March 27, 2017
Huey P. Long (Associated press)

Neil Gorsuch about to be confirmed

Neil Gorsuch took the best shots, such as they were, of disheartened, dismayed and despondent Democrats this week, and nobody laid a glove on him. He was as fresh when it was over as when the slugging, such as it was, began.

March 23, 2017
James Comey    Associated Press photo

James Comey again tries to ruin politics

James Comey, the director of the FBI, continues to act like a jerk for every season. The man who first tried to save Hillary Clinton's campaign, and then tried to wreck it at the eleventh hour, reprised his familiar tap dance Monday with Congress. It's getting stale.

March 20, 2017
Big Bird arrives at the Daytime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, in this Aug. 30, 2009, file photo. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Donald Trump’s budget has a short shelf life

A president's budget has the shelf life of a shrimp. A president drafts a budget and sells it with language as chaste and extravagant as the blue sky, and his naysayers dutifully mount their soap boxes to declaim, distort and denounce.

March 16, 2017