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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

PRUDEN: Rangers vs. the walker brigade

The commander in chief and Harry Reid, his faithful dog robber in the U.S. Senate, have assigned the rangers of the National Park Service the most dangerous mission of the government shutdown. They're already up for medals.

October 8, 2013

PRUDEN: The cheap tricks of the game

The games politicians play: Barack Obama is having a lot of fun using the government shutdown to squeeze the public in imaginative ways. The point of the shutdown game is to see who can squeeze hardest, make the most pious speech and listen for the applause. It's a variation on the grade-school ritual of "you show me yours, and I'll show you mine."

October 3, 2013

PRUDEN: A president as clueless as ever

Barack Obama is no Bill Clinton in the pantheon of romancers and boudoir bandits, but he is the president, after all, and his vain search for love in all the wrong places is enough to break a heart of stone. He just can't believe that Hasan Rouhani, the new president of Iran, is just not that into him. (Isn't everybody?)

September 30, 2013

PRUDEN: The bad boy at the party

Ted Cruz has been a bad boy, and deserves a good spanking. That's the message his colleagues in the Senate, particularly his Republican colleagues, have been sending to him. They just couldn't find anyone big enough to deliver the spanking, and now they never can.

September 27, 2013

PRUDEN: Hillary’s roots give her away

Will she or won't she? Not even her hairdresser, who is only called in occasionally, knows for sure. But the lady knows how to keep everyone guessing. Only her roots are showing.

September 24, 2013

PRUDEN: Happy to be the doorkeeper

The man they called "the Hammer," who used Democrats as anvils, got a little satisfaction Thursday. An appeals court in Texas reversed the money-laundering conviction of Tom DeLay and told him to go and sin no more.

September 20, 2013

PRUDEN: Laughter drowned in sorrow

If, as certain wise men are saying, Barack Obama's Syrian deal with Vladimir Putin will die of a thousand cuts, somebody with a knife had better get busy. Four or five slices have been taken out of the deal already, and the carcass looks like it could already use a transfusion. It won't last for a thousand cuts, or even a dozen.

September 17, 2013

PRUDEN: Measuring Putin for Mount Rushmore

If you're reading or listening in the wrong places, you might think they're already measuring a place for Vladimir Putin on Mount Rushmore, sandwiched between Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. That's where Barack Obama, who may have to give Mr. Putin the Nobel Peace Prize he won for doing nothing, expected to rest one day.

September 13, 2013

PRUDEN: Obama’s war with no name

The passive is never the voice of a leader. What plain folk asked to go to war crave is plain speech delivered with passion, a leader who says what he means, means what he says, and says on Tuesday what he said on Monday.

September 9, 2013

PRUDEN: A legacy for Barack Obama

A war nobody believes in, led by a man nobody trusts. If Barack Obama is still looking for a legacy, here it is. Everything about the Syrian dilemma stinks.

September 5, 2013

PRUDEN: The government keeps no secrets

Murder will out, as the Bard reminded us (and Chaucer before him), and a lot of other uncomfortable truths will out, too. That's what the NSA revelations are all about, and the IRS abuse, the spying on journalists, and the betrayal and cover-up at Benghazi. The government is populated by human people, and human people can't keep secrets.

September 3, 2013

PRUDEN: Up the hill and down again on Syria issue

Bashar Assad won Round 1, and there probably won't be a Round 2. The momentum toward punishing the Syrian regime, payback for what everyone agrees are war crimes and crimes against humanity, has dissipated. Momentum blunted is difficult to recover.

August 30, 2013

PRUDEN: A teaching moment for Barack Obama

Words just don't have meanings they once did. We have a gift for abusing and discounting the language. "Hate" was once one of the most powerful words in the language. We've reduced it to a footnote on a legal bill of indictment.

August 27, 2013

PRUDEN: Up to our ears in Al Gore’s ‘climate change’ snake oil

Al Gore and his traveling medicine show is back in town with his new, improved snake oil, guaranteed to grow hair, improve digestion, promote regularity and kill roaches, rats and bedbugs.

August 23, 2013

PRUDEN: Choosing a bad side in Egypt

For once, there's bipartisan agreement in Congress, this time about what to do about Egypt. Everyone recognizes a true dilemma, with no good choices. Rep. Peter T. King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, seems to speak for everyone: "The fact is, there's no good guys there."

August 20, 2013