self-licking ice cream cone
n.— «Analysts are concerned not with a policy audience, but with the readership among their peers in the intelligence community and with fulfilling their quota of reports and assessments. Despite an elaborate “requirements” process, most of the topics that analysts address are selected by the DI itself. It is the proverbial “self-licking ice cream cone.”» —“Reform Task for Woolsey at the CIA” by Marvin Ott Wall Street Journal Dec. 23, 1992. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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