LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee joked Tuesday that other candidates might be considering suicide because their level of support doesn't match their fundraising.
The former Arkansas governor, exaggerating, said other GOP presidential hopefuls were raising $100 for every nickel he had raised. "If I were some of these guys, I'd have to be sitting in a warm tub of water with razor blades," Huckabee said in an interview on MSNBC.
The ratio is closer to $10 for every $1 raised by Huckabee.
A national suicide-prevention group later criticized Huckabee.
"When a leading presidential candidate uses suicide and specifically means to do it as a joke, it is grossly irresponsible and is a disgrace," the National Hopeline Network, which runs the 1-800-SUICIDE help line, said in a statement.
"It also must be met with an immediate rebuke from the mental health community. This is no joking matter. Lives are at stake," the group said.
Asked whether he would win the Iowa caucuses Jan. 14, Huckabee said, "I think we will."
"The supporters who are with me are really with me," while other candidates do not enjoy the same level of commitment, Huckabee said.
A poll released Sunday by The Des Moines Register showed Huckabee and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani fighting for third place in Iowa, behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson. Romney and Giuliani lead GOP candidates in fundraising.
Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, also said Christian conservatives should "coalesce" around one candidate _ him _ because of his stand on social issues.
"I don't just speak to the base. I come from it. It's easier for me to talk about those issues because I only have to talk about one side of them," Huckabee said in a dig at other candidates. Romney and Giuliani, for instance, come from states with a more liberal electorate. Giuliani supports abortion rights and Romney, once a supporter, now opposes them.
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