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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

WESLEY PRUDEN: On Ferguson, Obama plays to his crowd

Barack Obama has the master wordsmith's gift for bending language, saying something that sounds good, but heard as something not so good.

November 27, 2014

WESLEY PRUDEN: Hillary Clinton’s president dreams turn sour

The laughter has yet to turn to tears, but the applause for Hillary Clinton is beginning to sound a little thinner than it did only yesterday.

November 24, 2014

WESLEY PRUDEN: Obama puts the cat among the pigeons

Barack Obama put the cat among the pigeons Thursday night, but he may be surprised by how big that cat could get, and with it a big cat's appetite for more than pigeons.

November 20, 2014

Goldwater: Good for a story, and good for the conscience

Barry Goldwater was the favorite candidate of every correspondent who appreciated a good story. I covered his 1964 presidential campaign for the old National Observer, the late, great Dow Jones newsweekly, and he never let us down. He was blunt, irreverent and unpredictable, often mocking the press caricature of him as a reckless gunslinger from the Old West. He was great copy.

November 17, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Shootout on Potomac looms over immigration amnesty

This is the week Washington has been waiting for. Barack Obama is expected to send up his executive amnesty for 5 million illegal aliens and double-dog dare the Republicans to do anything about it.

November 17, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Democrats working through the five stages of grief, still in denial

The Democrats are still trying to get through the famous five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. They're still stuck on denial. How could such a thing happen when we're so wise, so good, so compassionate, so sincere?

November 13, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Mary Landrieu’s shaky re-election bid; good times roll again on the Louisiana bayou

The good times are about to roll again down on the Louisiana bayou. The good old boys gathered Monday to present a solid front against Mary L. Landrieu and her fading "clout." Gallantry be damned.

November 10, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Trying to be gracious on a bitter night

No sad-sack candidate gets out of bed on Election Day deciding what to say in a concession speech. There's always Harry S. Truman's miracle of 1948 to inspire a heartfelt prayer for a miracle. But late on election night, when all hope has vanished on a cloud of gloom, a loser has to step up to the cameras and say something nice about someone he, at the moment, purely despises.

November 6, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Bipartisan good news on election eve

After the poll is over, after the break of morn, after the consultants' leaving, after the stars are gone; Many a heart is aching, if you could read them all — many the hopes that have vanished, after the poll.

November 3, 2014

WES PRUDEN: ‘A new kind of hell to pay’

"Muddling through" is not an inspiring strategy for any president. Barack Obama's administration is a muddle, as anyone can see, and everyone can see that he's through as a leader, just when a leader is needed to reassure a frightened nation.

October 30, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Obama White House bothered, bewildered and on the ropes

The days dwindle down to a precious few, and the White House continues to be bewitched, bothered and bewildered. The gang that can't shoot straight keeps banging away.

October 27, 2014

WES PRUDEN: Ben Bradlee and the end of a rowdy era

The obituaries for Ben Bradlee, who died this week age 93, invariably described him as "the legendary editor" of The Washington Post. That was careless language. Ben was not "legendary" at all. He was very real, as the Watergate defendants learned to their chagrin and sorrow.

October 23, 2014

WES PRUDEN: It was a dark and stormy Democratic night

This is the week the political world, like the worm, begins to turn. The polls, the hunches, the guesses and the vibes that only junkies feel all say it's a Republican year and Harry Reid will soon take a seat on the back bench.

October 20, 2014

WES PRUDEN: The deadly virus in the electorate

Sometimes incompetence gets its due reward. No one has to accuse Barack Obama of spreading the Ebola virus. The incompetence of this administration is there for everyone to see, and suffer. "Leading from behind" works no better against a deadly virus than it has against evil in the Middle East and greedy ambition in Ukraine.

October 16, 2014

PRUDEN: Letting no panic go to waste

There's so much fuel for hysteria, a crisis-monger hardly knows where to start.

October 13, 2014

PRUDEN: Where ‘water hogs’ stalk the thirsty

Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink. The Ancient Mariner would feel right at home in California.

October 9, 2014

PRUDEN: A virus, media boobs and the perfect storm

Some boobs in the media, which now include dozens of Internet websites where anything goes, the wilder and more improbable the better, are up to their usual standard of irresponsibility. The screamers are telling us that Ebola will soon kill us all, many of us at least twice.

October 6, 2014