Quotes by John McDonough

“That was the beginning of Wrigley Field merging with Wrigleyville. Before 1984, this wasnt a weekend destination point and a place where people would socialize after games. There were some small corner taverns that people happened upon and that was it.”

“Were not going for musical excellence. Its OK to be bad. But be fun bad. The level of expectation is zero. If theyre bad, we like it.”

“Its become the thing to do when youre in Chicago — to sing during the seventh-inning stretch, ... Every day, people regularly ask, Whos pitching? And whos singing?”

“It would have been nice to have some discussion with the leadership,”

“Weve been reshaping the company for the last three or four years and have completed all our major disposals, so were really on the growth period now,”

“Based on the information we had last night, we thought it was prudent to go ahead and implement our pre-hurricane plan,”

“[Nevertheless, he said he was encouraged.] Clearly theyre thinking hard about all the key issues and seem to be moving toward a shared responsibility framework that says, Everybodys got to be part of this, ... Today will be seen in the long run as a significant milestone in the process, where the House really began to create its own identity in terms of health reform.”

“[And not one of them was paid a dime or expenses to do it. Most of the time their performances were worth every penny.] Right now, ... were at abysmal . Were trying to move up to bad .”

“The more realistic and genuinely financed plan is the one offered by the House. Its got real coverage and real financing.”

“Its a huge increase and unfortunately its not a surprise. Its all tied to the cost of health insurance. Its either employers dropping coverage, which we havent seen much of, or employers raising the cost of coverage to workers, so they can no longer afford it.”