Mark Twain's Tale of Today: Halley's Comet Returns--The Celebrated Author Critiques American Politics
Ambassador Donald Tiffany Bliss (retired) served for thirteen years in the federal government in four administrations and practiced law with an international law firm in Washington D.C. for thirty years. He has testified before Congress, registered as a lobbyist, directed a political action committee, worked in a presidential campaign, served as president of a political think tank, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, and advised numerous clients on the mysterious workings of the federal bureaucracy. He has served on a number of nonprofit and corporate boards and is currently president-elect of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area. He draws on these experiences in drawing parallels between the Gilded Age and contemporary American politics. Bliss is the great-grandson of Elisha Bliss, Jr, President of the American Publishing Company, which published, among others, Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, The Gilded Age, and Tom Sawyer. He is also the grandson of Walter Bliss, who, as secretary and treasurer of the American Publishing Company, was involved in the publication, among others, of Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson, and the collected works of Mark Twain. Bliss is the author of The Law of Airline Customer Relations, Stability, Security, Safety and Service, Hale & Northam (2002) and is co-author of Counsel for the Situation, Shaping the Law to Realize America's Promise, Brookings Press (2010) (the story of the life of the Honorable William T. Coleman, Jr, a great American lawyer who broke many barriers.) Bliss lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife, Nancy.