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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

**FILE** U.S. envoy Chris Stevens (center), accompanied by British envoy Christopher Prentice (left), speaks April 11, 2011, to Council member for Misrata Dr. Suleiman Fortia (right) at the Tibesty Hotel where an African Union delegation was meeting with opposition leaders in Benghazi, Libya. (Associated Press)

PRUDEN: Betrayal in Benghazi, Libya, as clear as a sore toe

Mitt Romney should think of the betrayal in Benghazi as gout in Barack Obama’s left big toe, and step on it hard at every opportunity. The president will feel it, and the memory of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens deserves no less.

October 16, 2012
Abe Rosenthal

PRUDEN: Quelling panic in the ranks is Job 1 for Obama campaign

There’s not a dry mattress, pair of skivvies or delicate lace panty anywhere out there. The president is chasing an imaginary bird, the pollsters are choking back panic (“Has our methodology been wrong?”), and the media glitteries are even more hysterical than usual. (“How can anyone as wonderful as us be so wrong?”)

October 12, 2012
Teleprompter of the United States

PRUDEN: Debate aftermath: Deadly peril outside the media bubble

Now we’ll see how much debates really matter. Often they don’t matter much. But the presidential debate Wednesday night might matter a great deal, not because of what the candidates said, but what the debate told us about who the candidates really are.

October 5, 2012
Alfred E. Neuman

PRUDEN: Once more, Stupid: It’s the economy

We may be a nation of saps, if the pollsters are correct in their current assessment of the presidential race, but we’re a nation of good-hearted saps. We always want to do the right thing. We like that lovable ol’ lug in the White House, blundering and incompetent though he is. We want to think highly of ourselves, and how better to do it than by voting for Barack Obama?

October 2, 2012
Mitt Romney

PRUDEN: The great media slide continues

The distrust of the media becomes total. That’s hardly news to anyone, except to the clueless editors and publishers of the big newspapers and the big mules of the television networks, who see their audiences shrinking and wonder why.

September 28, 2012
The Gaffe Patrol

PRUDEN: Obama’s Gaffe Patrol shoots blanks

“Government intelligence” sounds like an oxymoron, and maybe that’s why President Obama usually skips his daily intelligence briefings. He prefers to get up to date on his iPad.

September 21, 2012
Susan Rice

PRUDEN: Free speech takes a licking in the Middle East and at home

President Obama and his men (and particularly his women) are having a tough time standing upright in the fierce wind blowing from the east. The troops are leaderless and the leader is rudderless. Their strategy, unique in American history, is making a wish for the barbarians to be nice.

September 18, 2012
Netanyahu and Obama

PRUDEN: Soft words and hard reality for Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama are men trapped in pickles. As the prime minister, Bibi’s first duty is to assure the survival of Israel. Against the prospect of another Holocaust, nothing else matters.

September 14, 2012
John. J. Pershing

PRUDEN: A grim message for the generals

There’s a reason why Barack Obama is mistrusted in the ranks of the military services. He doesn’t smell of the hive, and it shows. Bees recognize a hostile intruder when they see one, and so do soldiers, sailors and Marines.

September 11, 2012
Good ol’ Bubba

PRUDEN: God, Jews and good ol’ Bubba Clinton

Bill Clinton did what he set out to do, and did it well. He brought the attention and focus of the Democrats, if only briefly, squarely back to his favorite person: “Don’t you wish I was the man at the top of the ticket?” Nobody honks, wonks and bonks quite like the ravisher in chief. The delegates felt happily ravished, just like old times.

September 7, 2012
The Gaffe Patrol

PRUDEN: Fat new targets for the Gaffe Patrol at DNC

The Gaffe Patrol is on the job this week in Charlotte, N.C. Bob Schieffer of CBS News, a wing commander who does not ordinarily fly combat missions, got the first kill at the Democratic National Convention. When Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland committed a gaffe — defined as a politician unexpectedly blurting out the truth — he suddenly flew into Mr. Schieffer’s gun-sights.

September 4, 2012
Ann Romney, wife of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

PRUDEN: Tough times in Tampa for media elites

This has been a tough week in Tampa for the stars of the mainstream media, so called. The Republicans aren't acting like the bigots, zealots and wild-eyed extremists the boys and girls on the campaign bus want them to be.

August 30, 2012
George McGovern

PRUDEN: A big wind blows through Tampa

Now is the time for every good man to come to the aid of his party, or at least to come in out of the rain. The only wind will be from the podium, since the mighty hurricane that terrified the Republican National Convention is tracking 350 miles west of Tampa, Fla. Only the prospect of getting wet is exciting.

August 28, 2012
President Obama

PRUDEN: A 12-step cure for Obamaholics

Craig Karpel is a recovering addict. He says so himself. His addiction is to Barack Obama, and his recovery inspires him to write a book. He offers a 12-step program, patterned after the program that has rescued thousands of town drunks.

August 24, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown

PRUDEN: No campaign in California, the land of lotus

Not for nothing do the bundlers, bagmen and swag agents call California the Golden State. They decamp here early and stay late. Much of the money they raise for the campaigns is collected in California.

August 21, 2012
** FILE ** Former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder.

PRUDEN: Picking on poor Ol’ Uncle Joe Biden

Everybody's piling on Joe Biden, and it's not quite fair. Of course, a presidential campaign, like life, is unfair. We have John F. Kennedy's word on that. Maybe we should give ol' Joe a break. He's our only source of campaign humor, if not exactly the sharpest wit.

August 17, 2012