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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

Gov. John Kasich

PRUDEN: No toaster for Herman Cain

The great media toaster isn't broken, exactly, but it doesn't work like it once did. By all accounts, Herman Cain should be toast now, served hot, a bit scorched around the edges and left unbuttered. But try as they might, his tormentors have not yet had him for breakfast.

November 11, 2011
David Petraeus

PRUDEN: Rattling sabers at the Iranians

Something is definitely going on between Israel and Iran. More behind-the-scenes diplomacy? Plotting tougher sanctions? Or is something real finally in the works? It's not quite clear what that "something" may be. Uncertainty is exactly what the Israelis prescribe for now.

November 8, 2011
Jack the Ripper

PRUDEN: Herman Cain and innuendos

This was once a serious country with serious newspapers, back in the day when they were edited by serious editors and a man had the right to confront an accuser before she was allowed to destroy his reputation, career and even his life. Herman Cain doesn't look like Jack the Ripper, but Scotland Yard never pursued Mr. Ripper with the passion of the newspapers and television networks so hot after Mr. Cain.

November 4, 2011
Kate Michelman

PRUDEN: Mississippi takes on abortion issue with Nov. 8 vote

A funny thing happened on the way to forgetting about the abortion issue, which has roiled the country's politics for four decades. Some people haven't forgotten about it at all. Mississippi, which nobody ever cited as a bellwether state, will vote on Nov. 8 whether to amend its state constitution to protect the civil rights of all "persons," defined in Amendment 26 to "include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof."

November 1, 2011
Ronald Reagan

PRUDEN: The awful sin of Herman Cain

Things have gone from bad to badder for the self-righteous artsy-fartsy elites, who for all their book-learning and self-regard just can't figure out America. The Herman Cain phenomenon is the latest puzzlement of those who think only they're wise enough and entitled enough to tell the rest of us which fork to use.

October 28, 2011
Syrian President Bashar Assad

PRUDEN: Gallup’s ‘kill bump’ from Gadhafi’s death not to die for

Presidential elections don't turn on what's happening abroad. Barack Obama could be grateful for that much. Gallup finds that a tiny "kill bump" rewarded the president after the capture and slaying of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, but good news from the Islamic world, which hasn't yet felt the dawn of the 9th century, always comes with a catch.

October 25, 2011
Good old Joe

PRUDEN: Unhappy times at the White House

Good old Joe, always good for a laugh. However, that's not President Obama or the White House wise men holding their sides and rolling on the floor. Joe is endearing enough in the way of crazy uncles, but when the attic door is left unlatched, someone has to be dispatched to find old Joe and pay for the damage.

October 21, 2011
Warren G. Harding

PRUDEN: Anybody but Obama takes the lead

The conventional wisdom, which is usually but not always wrong, holds that Rick Perry is ahead of the field: He looks asleep, and that's where everybody else yearns to be. The prospect of President Romney is bor-iiiing.

October 18, 2011
Nicolas Sarkozy

PRUDEN: An evil wind in the Arab Spring

We've "enjoyed" the Arab Spring, celebrated by one and nearly all. But if you're a Christian under the wheels of an Egyptian army truck, it looks a lot like winter.

October 14, 2011
Chris Christie

PRUDEN: For GOP candidates, a flavor turns flat and sour

The trouble with flavors of the week is that, like chewing gum left overnight on the bedpost, they don't last very long. Rick Perry, who not so long ago was going to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, could tell you about that.

October 4, 2011
William Howard Taft

PRUDEN: Gaffe Patrol can’t miss with Perry as juicy target

These are high times for the Gaffe Patrol. A "target-rich environment," as the old-timers in Vietnam called it, invites every pilot with "unexpended ordnance" under his wings to shoot down everything he sees moving. Sometimes the Gaffe Patrol just can't miss. Rick Perry was such a juicy target after the Republican debate that even his missus could have been tempted to take a shot.

September 27, 2011
Calvin Coolidge

PRUDEN: A faithless lover run to ground

This week was supposed to be a big deal at the United Nations, where the 66th General Assembly convened to watch a motley collection of men (and the occasional woman) try to look important in a big town making with the big talk.

September 23, 2011
P-51 Mustang

PRUDEN: A Reno crash recalls a mighty machine

Barack Obama, with heavy rain falling without ceasing from that perpetual cloud over his head, must find a P-51 Mustang. The plane that crashed in Reno, Nev., sending spectators fleeing in a spectacular windup to an air show, saved FDR and the Allies amidst an earlier war seven decades ago. This president, too, needs a deus ex machina — literally, "a god out of the machine."

September 20, 2011
Joe Btfsplk

PRUDEN: Joe Btfsplk rains on the Democrats

Some Democrats have come up with a nifty slogan for 2012: "We're really hopeless, but the other guy could be worse." This is a steal from certain Republicans, who often campaign as sad-sack losers eager for whatever crumbs fall from the grown-ups' table: "Vote Republican; we're not as bad as you think."

September 16, 2011
Bob Turner

PRUDEN: Looking for omens among the winners in N.Y. race

The race to fill the vacant House seat of disgraced Anthony D. Weiner in New York City, to be won or lost Tuesday, should hold no special significance. The Republicans aren't particularly hard up for another vote in the House, and the district will disappear when district boundaries are rewritten later this year. No advantage of incumbency is at stake.

September 13, 2011
Rep. Eric Cantor

PRUDEN: When good news is mostly bad for Obama

Americans are always impatient with presidential candidates who speak only ideology, and that's good news for Barack Obama. But they're even more impatient with incompetence. That's bad news for the president.

September 9, 2011
Bill Clinton

PRUDEN: Seeking a slogan to satisfy Stupid

Bill Clinton was elected president on a simple slogan: "It's the economy, Stupid." The message was posted on the wall in the campaign headquarters in Little Rock. No one was allowed to be stupid enough to question or forget what the campaign was about. The rest is history. Barack Obama and his wise men are still casting about for a winning theme for 2012. The best anyone has come up with is, "It's NOT about the economy, Stupid."

September 6, 2011