self-licking ice cream cone
n.— «By repeating Red Team victories from one Unified Command or agency to another without trying to fix the problem(s) creates a “self-licking ice cream cone” for the IO community, that is, an ensured mission and fund site for the foreseeable future.» —“Safeguarding Information Operations” by Stephen W. Magnan in Center for the Study of Intelligence Studies In Intelligence (Washington, D.C.) Summer, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Katie in Everett, Washington, is curious about the expression If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no need for tinkers. What is a tinker? She heard this phrase on the television series The Gilded Age, in response to a character who...