9:06 PM: This could be fun. Candidates get to question each other.

9:07 PM: Yup. Michele Bachmann kicks it off, asking Rick Perry about his support for Al Gore in 1988.

9:08 PM: Finally. Cain and Romney engage.

9:10 PM: Cain challenges Romney to name the 59 points of his economic plan. Romney: “Simple answers are helpful but often inadequate.” #999throwdown

9:11 PM: Someone forgot to tell Michele Bachmann that Rick Perry isn’t relevant anymore. Everyone else targeting Romney with their questions.

9:12 PM: Right now it’s Mitt Romney and the also-rans. It’s that simple.

9:14 PM: Ron Paul can’t resist going after Cain for serving on the Federal Reserve board.

9:18 PM: Perry joins in the Romney onslaught, but Romney holding his own.

9:19 PM: Romney’s turn. He tosses a nice easy one Michele Bachmann’s way. Well played.

9:20 PM: Cain eclipses Perry in this debate. Strange but true.

9:23 PM: Someone might want to tell Rick Perry that the debate started 83 minutes ago.

In an interview just now with TPM, Barney Frank responded to Newt’s threat to jail him for the financial crisis: “This self-styled intellectual leader of the free world struggling to stay ahead of Michele Bachmann in the polls is unsettling him so he talks even sillier than he sometimes does.”