Huckabee, Thompson play class warfare card against Romney, the richest of the Republican group

Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson have begun casting Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney as a scion of the upper class, contrasting him with their more humble roots in hopes of undermining the richest candidate in a well-off group.

America's colonial founders "had a brilliant, really revolutionary idea that the people elected would not represent the elite, but would represent the ordinary," Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, said at a debate in Iowa this week, a subtle poke at the former Massachusetts governor.

Thompson, a lawyer, actor and former senator from Tennessee, was more direct, saying: "My goal is to get into Mitt Romney's situation, where I don't have to worry about taxes anymore."

The populist pitches mark a shift for Huckabee and Thompson, two Southerners who, while starting their lives in families of modest means, now live comfortably, if not lavishly. It also marks an interesting push by Republicans are often seen as the party of the wealthy while Democrats attempt to portray themselves as being closer to those with humble means.

Both candidates are playing the class card against Romney _ essentially telling Iowans that unlike him, "I am one of you, and I will speak for you" _ as polls show a competitive race just three weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses that lead off the state-by-state Republican nominating fight to determine who will represent the party in the 2008 presidential election.

Romney, worth between $190 million (euro131 million) and $250 million (euro172 million), took issue with Thompson's comment. But both presidential opponents already had planted the idea with Midwestern voters that Romney lives a life of wealth and privilege.

Huckabee, a Southern Baptist preacher, has come from far behind the pack of candidates to seize the Republican lead in Iowa. Romney, the front-runner for months, is fiercely challenging him to gain ground back. Thompson trails both and is hoping to benefit from daily skirmishing between the two.

On Thursday, Romney dismissed the jabs from Huckabee and Thompson, saying he did not believe voters choose their president based on "the pocket book" of a candidate.

"We've had great presidents of different economic status from the Bush family and the Reagan family and others. So I don't think an appeal to the differences in income is a successful political strategy," he told reporters.

Indeed, the class arguments may not hold much weight.

Americans have previously not shied away from electing men born into wealth, such as Republican George W. Bush and Democrat John F. Kennedy. And neither Huckabee nor Thompson is struggling to make ends meet like many Americans.

Some polls suggest most people do not really resent the rich; they just want to join them.

However, two-thirds of people in a Gallup Poll in April said the distribution of money and wealth in the country is not fair, and only a third of people in a Gallup Poll in November 2006 said they would be happier if they were rich.

Class warfare has marked the Democratic presidential race all year.

John Edwards _ who goes home to a 28,000-square-foot (2,600-sq. meter) North Carolina estate when he is not campaigning _ complains about the lack of attention to the "two Americas" that separate the poor from the rich. Hillary Rodham Clinton _ a senator and former first lady _ says it is OK for her to accept lobbyist donations because it keeps her in touch with the issues of the working class.

The issue emerged in the Republican race during a debate Wednesday in Johnston, Iowa, near Des Moines.

Given the chance to make a 30-second statement, Huckabee said the president should not represent "a ruling class" but "a servant class."

"I can tell you that it's a long way from the little rent house I grew up in to this stage. I'm still in awe that this country would afford kids like me the opportunity to be a president. I'll try not to forget where I came from and where this country needs to go," he said.

The former Arkansas governor frequently spins the tale to voters of his cash-strapped upbringing in the little town of Hope, Arkansas. But he is hardly a pauper these days, and used a gift registry to help furnish his new home after leaving the governor's mansion where he lived for 10 years. He made nearly $75,000 (euro51,700) as Arkansas governor plus a pension and also has brought in $300,000 (euro206,800) in book sales, royalties and honoraria. He has between $331,000 (euro228,100) and $815,000 (euro561,700) in investments, and tens of thousands of dollars in savings and stocks.

Thompson made his tax-bracket remark as he answered a question about taxes.

In his Southern drawl, he always reminds voters of his early small-town boyhood in tiny Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. However, during his eight years in the Senate, he made the rounds on Washington's exclusive party circuit, and he spent more than a decade in Hollywood circles while he starred in TV shows and big-screen films. He made millions as an actor and now lives in a Washington, D.C., suburb.

Unlike the two of them, Romney has a privileged pedigree, having grown up in tony Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, as the son of a former governor and chairman of American Motors. After leaving home, Romney attended Harvard law and business schools, and quickly earned millions of dollars as a venture capitalist. He has three homes.

But he glosses over all that as he campaigns, mindful that much of the country probably cannot relate.

Despite his background, Romney says his policies on immigration, spending, and health care could appeal to those in the middle class and below.

"I'm proud of the record that I have in making the difference in the lives of everyday Americans," he says.