Inferno II parallels outcome of Senate compromise

It's been a highly active day of posting, and time to sum it up CrimeNotes style. Here's the latest comparison of how the Real World/Road Rules Inferno II eerily parallels the latest news on judicial nominations.

I'm probably not the first to notice this, but Julie bears a striking resemblance to James Dobson, only she's saner and smarter. For instance, they're both known to be sexually conservative, they both wear religion on their sleeves, and, as Julie puts it, they're both into "battling evil." Sounding much like Sen. Ken Salazar, (D-Colo.), Tonya observes that, like Dobson, Julie is "crazy in the head."

It's going to be Julie against Tonyar in the Inferno. This week's challenge -- not unlike brokering a filibuster compromise -- looks exceedingly difficult. Ride a little motorbike down a small dock without wrecking the bike or hitting the water. "I'm going to go balls to the walls [sic]," says Tonya, sounding like Ken Salazar brokering the filibuster compromise.

The contest is underway. Much like Bill Frist's guidance of the GOP, Abram sends his minibike into the drink. He's soaked. Miz snatches defeat from the jaws of victory and plows into the water. Like Michael McConnell with funky hair, Landon speeds across the finish line. A gay, wacky version of William Pryor redux, Dan struggles, but makes it across the finish line. Rachel (Henry Saad) can't navigate the course, so she gets disqualified.

But Julie is going for broke. Yeah, James Dobson, yeah. Come hell or high water, she's taking the straight and narrow route, the one that sunk Abram before her. And like her hypothetical counterpart, she drops like a brick.

Now we've got Tonya and Julie going to the Inferno. Julie's T-shirt reads "Jesus is Real." Tonya displays irrational exuberance when they learn that the match involves ripping patches off the other person's gym suit. "They will rip each other's eyes out if they have to," Veronica says. "She's staring at me like I am the devil," Tonya says of Julie. "Julie, you are a dirty girl, we love it," Landon/Michael McConnell shrieks amid the scrum.

They count the patches. Tonya has snagged 23 patches, and Julie took 22. An exceedingly close fight, but Julie has to go.

"She went in there like a bad-ass bitch and whupped some ass," Derrick says. He's talking about Tonya, but switch the gender, and you'd think he was talking about Senator Salazar. And Julie, like James Dobson, is gone, out of the contest, consigned to irrelevance.