Washington, DC PR man David Bass has a perfectly good explanation for why he was charged with a felony for disrupting a flight: He was all hopped up on Benadryl! He was awake traveling for five three days! He wanted wine!

Much props to David Bass—who now works with plugged-in political PR firm Qorvis, [UPDATE: Bass actually left Qorvis a couple years ago, and is now with Raptor Strategies] after serving as deputy publisher at the Weekly Standard—for not hiding behind a "no comment." You can see how he might be embarrassed by the fact that the FBI said he "appeared drunk and abusive on the flight, demanding alcohol and refusing flight attendants' orders to sit down." Bass explained to Politico the stunning confluence of events that led up to his totally misunderstood behavior on the flight:

Bass said he wasn't drunk on the flight, but rather had been taking Benadryl for an allergic reaction.
"I didn't see any reason why I couldn't get a glass of wine," he said. "I was extremely sleep deprived. I have a bad history of traveling south."

Antihistamines combined with travel in a direction contrary to the preferences of one's internal compass? Any doctor will tell you that's a recipe for an airborne outburst—including crawling over the passenger next to you while demanding wine— through no fault of one's own. On top of that:

Bass said he had been in Honduras on a business trip and hadn't slept for five days before boarding a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Washington on Friday.

Not sleeping for five fucking days? He's a hardworking professional. "It didn't seem like reality to me," Bass said. We bet! Update: Politico just updated their story to say he hadn't slept for three days, not five after Bass called to clarify that he had been traveling for five days and not getting much sleep.

[Politico]