Author profile

Follow author updates

Wesley Pruden

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

WESLEY PRUDEN: Red states more generous than blue states

The Lord loveth a cheerful giver, as the Apostle Paul tells us, and some of the most generous givers are the most cheerful among the faithful, and they live among us in America.

April 16, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Women not combat ready for U.S. military

There's so much to worry about that a conscientious citizen has to get up early to put in the 10 or 12 hours every day to cover it all — Hillary, the shortage of gay wedding cakes, the scarcity of gay pizza in Indiana, the deficiency of fresh-cut flowers for male brides in California, the horned devils who don't get no respect at the Iran-nuclear weapons talks in Switzerland. Now we have to worry about an excess of push-ups and pull-ups at Marine Corps training bases.

April 13, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Feminists offended by ‘Hillary’ over ‘Clinton’

We might be running out of things to be offended by. Feminists, gays and blacks have got so much of what they want that foolish people thought they might pipe down any day now, to let the rest of us rest while they reload.

April 9, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Bad journalism and rape culture in Charlottesville

We're getting a lesson in the politically correct way to conduct journalism in contemporary media, with a retraction and the admission by Rolling Stone magazine that it made up the story about gang rape at the University of Virginia. But nobody is paying a price. Not yet.

April 6, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: A deal with Iran built on lies

Everything about the so-called deal with Iran, including the reputations of the men who negotiated it, is a lie. It's likely to be a deadly lie for millions of people who will die on account of it. The world should mark well everyone responsible for it.

April 2, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Democrats are ready for Hillary Clinton, but is Hillary ready?

The Syndicate convened the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Illuminati and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy over the weekend at a secret hideaway in downtown Shangri-la to talk about themes for the 2016 campaign.

March 30, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Obama reveals Israel’s nuclear program

President Obama says Rudy Giuliani was wrong. He does, too, love America. That's good enough for me. He says he's a Christian, despite his constant love bombs for Islam, and if that's good enough for God it's good enough for me, too. Conversations between believers and the Almighty are confidential, and have yet to be cracked by the National Security Agency (but we can be sure they're working on it).

March 26, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Sodomite Suppression Act ignites panic in California

Life can be good inside a bubble, where the sun always shines, life is a bowl of cherries and it comes with whipped cream and no calories. You could ask almost anyone in San Francisco, where the only disappointment inside the lavender bubble is among the gay caballeros who don't get to carry the six-foot papier-mache penis to lead the annual Gay Pride Parade.

March 23, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Starbucks should stick to coffee and ditch ‘Race Together’

Money is nice but it can be distracting. Captains of industry pile up millions and sometimes imagine that profits makes them prophets, wise and learned in things they don't know anything about.

March 19, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Republicans regret doing the right thing with Iran letter

We can add senators to bread, toilet paper and milk on the list of panic items when the snow flies. Fortunately, the snow won't fly again in Washington until next year if we're lucky, but the senators are still here.

March 16, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes are receding

Conventional wisdom teaches that nothing succeeds like success, but the unwary politician forgets the more important Pruden Rule, which reflects both politics and life: "Nothing recedes like success." Conventional wisdom is made of two parts gossamer and one part each of fog and smoke. The Pruden Rule is cast iron.

March 12, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Hillary Clinton’s Nixon moment

That ominous noise in the rafters above the heads of Bubba and the missus is the creaking of a roof trying not to collapse. The weight of the years is just about more than the Clinton roof can stand.

March 9, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Hillary Clinton breaks email rules, dogged by media

Hillary Clinton's trouble with her email account is only a symptom of what ails the lady. Like Bubba, she suffers from terminal arrogance.

March 5, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: In boycotting Netanyahu’s speech, Democrats pick the wrong battle

The Democrats set out to teach John Boehner and Benjamin Netanyahu a lesson. They would boycott the Israeli prime minister's speech to Congress and apply enough pressure to cancel the speech, keep Mr. Netanyahu at home and embarrass the Republicans who invited him here. What a happy day's work that would be.

March 2, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Clinton Foundation’s money ‘problems’ problematic for Hillary Clinton

For all the tales you've heard about Hillary and Bubba, they're actually simple folks with simple tastes. All they want is money.

February 26, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: A job too big for Cupid

Rudy Giuliani would shoot Cupid, and not with an arrow dipped in Love Potion No. 9. He would use a Smith & Wesson .358 with a slug bathed in garlic.

February 23, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Obama’s blind indifference to Islamic terror

The threat of radical Islamic terrorism is so clear and plain that even a president could see it. But Barack Obama is blind, deaf or indifferent, and maybe all three, and determined to keep himself that way.

February 19, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Obama remains ignorant as anti-Semitism makes a comeback

We're well into the new century, moving swiftly through the second decade of the new millennium, at ease in an era of science, modern medicine and wondrous electronics that our grandparents could not have imagined. (Even our parents don't understand most of it.)

February 16, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Obama’s Islamic State strategy has no ‘oomph’

Barack Obama wants a big box of Magic Markers to deal with the barbarians in the Islamic State. He's in the mood to draw some more red lines. There's actually no magic in the president's markers, but he doesn't know that. Drawing lines in a coloring book is fun — you could ask any 4-year-old — but so far the lines Mr. Obama draws haven't frightened the jihad out of anyone.

February 12, 2015

WESLEY PRUDEN: Brian Williams is a reminder only God deals in truths

Facts take a drubbing in Washington, where scrubbing and spinning is the national sport. And not always just in Washington. The late, great Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Democratic senator from New York, observed that "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts." He should have lived a little longer.

February 9, 2015

EVENT: IndoPac 2026 Naval Dominance: Shipbuilding, Autonomy & C2

WATCH: Ranked choice voting is coming to D.C. — here’s how it works

Celebrating America’s 250th Honoring the milestones that got us here