But his stewardship was not marked by the wholesale federal retreat on health issues that some liberals had feared.

But is the first way, which many liberals, both secular and religious, fear as potentially arbitrary and intolerant, the only alternative?

"Why do liberals fear me?"

For many years liberals feared that such a system could destroy their liberties.

Many liberals in Russia fear that the organization is designed to set up a cult of personality around President Putin.

Some liberals fear that concentrating on debt reduction will divert attention from needed investments in education, health care and poverty fighting, all issues essential to the country's long-term prospects.

The proposal symbolizes the vast changes in Medicare that conservatives desire and liberals fear.

Democratic liberals fear that expression of the popular will.

Other liberals, he said, fear the use of troops in Chechnya will lead to a police state in Russia.

Conservatives fear that the bishops will be swayed by feminist arguments, and liberals fear that the Pope's reassertion of traditional views would predetermine the outcome.