Is McCain a liberal?

Over the last few weeks and as he emerged as the Republican front-runner, McCain has been taking a lot of flak from the right-wing Christian conservative branch of his party. They consider him unfit to be the Republican nominee because of 

1. his position on immigration reform : McCain has co-sponsored a bill with Ted Kennedy which would provide, amongst other things, the possibility for illegal immigrants to gain a legal status. 

2. his position on campaign reform : McCain-Feingold bill limits the availability of soft money and imposes a ban on political ads about the issues paid for by independent groups 60 days before an election. This type of unofficial ads were used in campaigns to highlight, for example, the position of a candidate on issues in order to discredit him/her. For the conservatives this is an intolerable restriction on free speech. 

3. his position on the Bush tax -cuts : the Arizona Senator voted against the tax-cuts twice not only because the package was biased in favor of the richer Americans but because he considered it was not financially sound since it would increase the deficit. 

4. his stance against torturing terrorists. 

The most vocal, extreme and intentionally shocking of his critics is the ultra-conservative political pundit ( = "someone who is often asked to give his/her opinion in the media) Ann Coulter. She is a vehement critic of American liberals and Democrats : for instance one of her books is entitled : If Democrats had brains they'd be Republican. 

 A short visit to her website will give you an idea of the type of rhetoric she is using against McCain : basically she is accusing him of being liberal and she has been saying that she supports Hillary Clinton (the Conservative's arch-enemy!) to emphasize her opposition to McCain. 

She's been calling her "my girl Hillary" for the last couple days, which is of course quite funny when you know Ann Coulter's convictions : read her article "From Goldwater Girl to Hillary Girl" (NB : another reference to the "father of modern conservatism, Barry Goldwater). In this article she denounces Arnold Shwarzeneger as a liberal Republican as well. 

I can imagine that you would be put off or shocked by her style, because we are not used to hearing such opinionated commentators in France. But take what she says with a pinch of salt, she is also a bit of a comedian. 

Other people express similar views to those of Ann Coulter, such as Rush Limbaugh who also is strongly opposed to McCain.