clarification:
my tables don't use the underscore separator - I've got a propconfiguration_group so I edited the sql update to be
SELECT @gid := configuration_group_id FROM `propconfiguration_group` where `configuration_group_title` LIKE 'Tabbed Products Config';

this is the error message:
1062 Duplicate entry 'GLOBAL_PROD_DESC_ON_TAB' for key 2
in:
[INSERT INTO propconfiguration VALUES ('', 'Global Product Description Tab', 'GLOBAL_PROD_DESC_ON_TAB', '1', 'Set this to 1 if you want all products to have the Main Product Description on its own tab', @gid, '11', now(), now(), NULL, "zen_cfg_select_option(array('0', '1'),");]


seems like the prefix addition worked only to produce a different problem...?