JOHNSTON - Republican sensation Mike Huckabee Wednesday faced a trial by fire as party White House hopefuls gathered for their last debate before the curtain rises on 2008 nominating contests.
Twenty-two days before the Iowa caucuses, the Republican candidates had a last chance to damage their rivals in a face-to-face clash, and were training their crosshairs on Huckabee after he rocketed into the top tier of the field.
Democrats meanwhile hold their final pre-caucuses debate here on Thursday, as long-time front-runner Hillary Clinton battles challenger Senator Barack Obama, who appears to be making serious dents in her opinion poll leads.
A new poll Wednesday suggested that the former first lady's advantage in New Hampshire, which holds its primary election just five days after voting in Iowa, had evaporated.
Even before Republican candidates took the stage, Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, was embroiled in a new row over the Mormon faith of his top Iowa rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Huckabee was quoted in a forthcoming New York Times magazine story as saying "don't Mormons ... believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"
Romney declined to say in a television interview whether he thought Huckabee was making an issue of his religion, viewed with suspicion by many in the Republican Party's key evangelical bloc.
But he branded attacks on religion as "simply un-American" and told MSNBC that he was sad issues that had been refuted by his church's spokesmen were being raised again.
Huckabee's campaign said the former Baptist pastor's remarks had been taken out of context, and reaffirmed his support of universal religious tolerance.
Romney has attempted to halt Huckabee's momentum, debuting a negative advertisement on Tuesday accusing him of offering state tuition assistance for illegal immigrants.
But Huckabee told reporters in Iowa Tuesday Romney was "desperate" after spending millions of dollars in the state, only to be outpaced by his low budget campaign.
Romney may have the most to lose, as probably his only viable route to the nomination rests on victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, which holds primary elections January 8.
Huckabee's joking, sunny demeanor has also been tested in recent days as he fought off a controversy over a 1992 statement that AIDS patients should be quarantined, telling Fox News he would probably "say things a little differently" now.
A CBS/New York Times poll published Tuesday found the Republican race had undergone a sharp transformation in the last two months.
In October, Huckabee had just four percent in national polls -- now he is snapping at long-time front-runner Rudolph Giuliani's heels with 21 percent, compared to 22 percent for the former New York mayor.
The latest average of Iowa polls by website Realclearpolitics.com gives Huckabee a six percent lead in the state.
Giuliani has not deployed significant resources in Iowa, reasoning that his liberal social record is unlikely to win favor among social conservatives, and hopes to make a splash in a clutch of nominating contests in February.
A new survey meanwhile of Democratic candidates showed long-time front-runner Clinton, already in a dogfight with Obama and former vice presidential nominee John Edwards in Iowa, shedding support in New Hampshire.
The former first lady stood at 31 percent in the northeastern state compared to Obama on 30 percent in the CNN/WMUR survey.
Clinton had dropped five percentage points while Obama has shot up by eight points since the previous polls was conducted in November.
New Hampshire is being seen as a firewall for Clinton should she lose the caucuses in Iowa. she still holds double digit leads in most national opinion polls of Democratic voters.
col/mac

12/12/2007 18:12 GMT