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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: California dreamin’ in Gruesome Gulch, a view from bottom of ‘fiscal cliff’

Californians take pride in the notion that everything in America starts here — the music, the clothes, the food, the fun and games of the celebrity culture. Now California is showing the nation something else, a view from the bottom of the fiscal cliff. Life from Gruesome Gulch, you might say.

January 1, 2013

PRUDEN: Taking aim at the easy target — guns

“What we must have is a national debate about guns.” So goes the media cliche of the moment. Everybody on the left is saying it, but nobody there means a word of it. All these wayward worthies really want is an opportunity to put piety on parade (and take your guns).

December 28, 2012

PRUDEN: The amazing grace of Christmas morn

The strip malls and the Main Streets fall silent. The ringing cash registers and the happy cries of children are but ghostly echoes across silent streets. But the Christ child born in a manger 2,000 years ago lives, liberating the hearts of sinners and transforming the lives of the wicked.

December 25, 2012

PRUDEN: Running out the clock on Benghazi

There’s no mystery about why Hillary Rodham Clinton spends so much time on airplanes to dreary places that everybody else avoids like the plague (or the stomach flu). The climate anywhere is better than in the comfortable ineptitude of Foggy Bottom.

December 21, 2012

PRUDEN: When tragedy strikes in Newtown, Conn., the hysterics rule

Being a man is not even the proper 21st-century response to crisis. We’re all modern here, so we must emulate frightened, hysterical old women like Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City, who thinks he knows how to silence the guns.

December 18, 2012

PRUDEN: Another low bow to radical Islam

Barack Obama says he’s a Christian. Good for him (and for the Gospel). But rarely has a Christian paid such obeisance to another faith and ideology. The president’s bow and scrape to Islam knows no end. That’s not so good.

December 14, 2012

PRUDEN: The game plan at the lip of the fiscal cliff

Barack Obama ain’t afraid of no stinkin’ fiscal cliff. Why should he be? When the rest of us go over the cliff, doomed to pain and oblivion among the soup cans, plastic bags and empty soda-pop bottles at the bottom of the abyss, he’ll be soaring over the rooftops as only a tin-pot messiah can.

December 11, 2012

PRUDEN: Over the cliff in a barrel

If a man can survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, maybe the Republicans can survive falling off Fiscal Cliff in a barrel with House Speaker John A. Boehner.

December 7, 2012

PRUDEN: The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians to nowhere good

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can’t go anywhere good. Both Arab and Jew know it. President Obama poses as the honest broker, but he too knows that talk of a lasting resolution of differences is 100-proof moonshine.

December 4, 2012

PRUDEN: Obama’s challenge to the three amigos

President Obama is still playing Sir Walter Raleigh, standing between himself and Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations and the designated scapegoat in the Benghazi cover-up.

November 30, 2012

PRUDEN: Republican retreat at ‘fiscal cliff’

Politics is not a game that comes naturally to Republicans. Little boys in Republican families usually want a briefcase, not a baseball glove, a football or boxing gloves for their sixth birthday. President Ronald Reagan, the modern Republican icon, was a Democrat first, after all. So there’s no surprise now that President Obama, armed with a well-fitting suit, well-shined shoes, a gift of gab and a unique skill at hijacking America for extended guilt trips, is about to roll the Republicans at the lip of fiscal cliff.

November 27, 2012

PRUDEN: Ho, ho: A rally to Twinkie’s defense

Ding, dong, the Ding Dong is dead. Well, maybe. But Twinkie, the Ho Ho and Sno Ball will surely live again, likely in a right-to-work state. It's hard to imagine a plate of barbecue without the embrace of two slices of Wonder Bread to soak up the sauce.

November 23, 2012

PRUDEN: The ill wind blowing past Benghazi

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and that evil wind from the Middle East comes just when Barack Obama needs a distraction most. Just when the mainstream media finally discovers the deadly screw-up in Benghazi and can no longer avoid talking and writing about it, the Palestinians fire volleys of rockets reaching Tel Aviv.

November 20, 2012

PRUDEN: The helpless little lady is back in town as Obama defends her honor

The helpless little lady, who depends on a man to defend her honor, her ego and her perks, was thought to have been driven out of town by the feminists. But she’s back. President Obama, who demonstrated in the election just past that he’s still the tall, dark and handsome prince of feminine fantasy, stepped up manfully to defend the honor of Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations who eagerly joined the spinning of the enormous fib that the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was about a homemade video.

November 16, 2012

PRUDEN: The web of deceit about Benghazi begins to fray

What did the president know, and when did he know it? Of what steel are the Republicans in Congress made? We’re about to find out. History warns presidents that second terms are never Sunday picnics, and the unfolding — exploding is more accurate — of the story of what really happened on a violent night in Benghazi, Libya, and the days that followed is Barack Obama’s introduction to his next four years. We probably ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

November 13, 2012

PRUDEN: Let’s have a little perspective on the election, please

Woe is us. But next time, the woe will be for the other guys. Keeping that in mind is the secret of surviving the morning after. Losing an election always hurts; winning hurts the other guys, which is why winning is so sweet. This one hurts conservatives a lot, and it’s particularly painful for those with unrealistic great expectations.

November 9, 2012

PRUDEN: When mere political rhetoric was for sissies

We’re almost there. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have inflicted maximum damage on each other. Campaign wise men have slipped into the pooh-pooh mode, pooh-poohing the other side’s claims of good news. The dainty and delicate, afraid of the sight of blood, can relax, have a cookie and sip a nice cuppa tea (herbal recommended).

November 6, 2012