The GOP presidential primary pluggers had at it again Saturday night in the ABC News/Des Moines Register debate in Iowa. The hardworking staff caught as much of it as we could, and here are some random observations (see video via this New York Times piece):

•  Did Mitt Romney (R-$$$$) really propose a $10,000 bet with Rick Perry (R-Free the Supreme Court Eight!) over whether Romney had changed his position on health care between editions of his book?

What’s next – a pinky bet between Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum, seeing as how they have no money?

• In his answer to a question about immigration reform, Perry kept referring to “the laws we already have on the book.” Maybe someone should tell him there’s more than one book.

(If nothing else, the endless GOP debates have demonstrated that Perry is exactly like George W. Bush in knowing one thing about every topic, and repeating it in multiple ways to fill out his alloted time for answering questions.)

• ABC’s Diane Sawyer is way too fluttery for a woman her age.

• Where was Jon Huntsman (R-Anyone Seen My Daughters Around)? And how ticked are the Huntsman gals? (Check here.)

• ABC ran highlight film around commercial breaks, recapping contentious exchanges in the debate. Which means debates have officially joined the ranks of sportscasting.

• How exactly do you pronounce Bibi Netanyahu’s name? At one point, Romney did an any-Bibi-you-know-I-know-better duet with Newt Gingrich (R-Callista), and Romney ket referring to him as Bibi Notenyahu. Here’s the tiebreaker.

• Gingrich was remarkably composed in a beatdown segment about marital infidelity, but might have erred in telling Romney the only reason Mitt hadn’t become a lifelong politician was that he lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994. Boos all around.

• Final thought: Could we, kinda, stop now?