A phrase made out-of-Chicago-popular by 1988 presidential candidate George Herbert Walker Bush, former Director of Central Intelligence, former ambassador to China, and all-around Well-Connected Man - he was also, at the time, Ronald Reagan's vice president. "I was out of the loop" was his response to questions about how he could possibly say he knew nothing ("...absolutely no-thing! - Sgt. Schultz, from Hogan's Heroes) about Iran-Contra.