Excellent point; those groups in the Church with a homosexual agenda used to refer to the Pope, when he as still Cardinal Ratzinger, as "the Rat". Pope Ratzinger is never going to a Pius X, but I believe he's leading the Church in the right direction now. As you said, the liberals hate him, and that's a good thing.
More conservative Catholic who faulted John Paul II as "too easy" on the American liberals don't understand how deeply intrenched they were in the American Church. It has taken almost thirty years now to make a dent in their armor. God in his providence seems to have brought fire and brimestone down on the Church, to burn away the dross. John Paul was able to "stack" the college of Cardinals in such a way to insure they were open to the leadership of Cardinal Ratzinger. But I think that the hand of God is on this new pope; his performance on the world stage at the funeral of John Paul was inspired and, who would have expected it, but this austere scholar has the popular touch. He had the crowd gathered in Rome at "hello," so to speak. The Cardinals simply trotted on behind the popular will. Now we have on the throne Aman who has observed what has happened since the sad closing years of Pope Paul and decided, that something must be done.