Huckabee's Xmas video under attack

The ad running in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina shows Huckabee sitting next to a Christmas tree as the carol "Silent Night" plays in the background.

After asking the viewers if they're tired of political attack ads, he says this is the time of year to "remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends."

An ordained Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee is counting on conservative Christians to propel him to a win in the early primaries. But the appeal to believers of one religion in a political television ad is unusual.

Huckabee, in Houston to raise money for his surging presidential bid, said it was a harmless holiday greeting.

"If we are so politically correct in this country that a person can't say enough of the nonsense with the political attack ads could we pause for a few days and say Merry Christmas to each other then we're really, really in trouble as a country."

But Catholic League president Bill Donahue said the former Arkansas governor went way beyond wishing people a joyous holiday.

He was especially disturbed by the cross-like image created by a white bookcase in the background of the ad, saying he believed it was a subliminal message.

"What he's trying to say to the evangelicals in western Iowa (is): I'm the real thing," Donahue said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends. "You know what, sell yourself on your issues, not on what your religion is."

Huckabee said the bookshelf is just a bookshelf and then shrugged the controversy off, joking: "I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead.'"

Huckabee recently pulled ahead of Romney in state polls in Iowa, and he also leads in South Carolina. He was in Houston and Dallas on Tuesday for private fundraisers. On Sunday, he was scheduled to speak from the pulpit at Pastor John Hagee's Cornerstone Church, an evangelical megachurch in San Antonio.

Huckabee has played up his religious credentials to set himself apart from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is thrice-married and holds liberal positions on social issues, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose Mormon faith is looked upon skeptically by many Christians.