ATLANTA - A conservative Georgia Republican congressional candidate is criticizing President Barack Obama in roadside billboards that use the communist hammer-and-sickle symbol of the nation's Cold War enemies.

The three billboard ads from candidate Jody Hice, a minister, pose a question to passers-by: "Had Enough Of Obama's Change?" The first letter in the word change is replaced by the hammer and sickle - a symbol that was part of Soviet Russia's flag and associated with iron-fisted 20th-century dictators, including Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong of China.

Hice said he placed the large advertisements last week to call attention to policies of the Democratic president that he considers socialist, including government bailouts for the auto industry and a recently passed overhaul of the health insurance system.

"I believe that we're in trouble as a nation," Hice said in an interview Wednesday. "We're facing a president and policies that endanger our future, endanger our America. There's no question it's socialist at the base."

The billboard ads went up last week in communities east of Atlanta, where Hice is competing with seven other Republicans in a July 20 primary to succeed GOP Congressman John Linder. Democrat Doug Heckman, who lost a 2008 race against Linder, is also running.

Georgia's Democratic Party has criticized the ads, saying it's inappropriate and distasteful to compare Obama to Cold War rivals while the country is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, Democratic Party spokesman Eric Gray said the party has not asked Hice to remove the ads.

"We're strong advocates of the First Amendment," Gray said. "He has the right to say what he wishes. We just hope the people of the 7th District see that he's playing on their fears and some of the worst emotions people have."

Hice, a talk show host and minister, deliberately courts political controversy.

He was one of nearly three dozen clergy who provoked a fight with the Internal Revenue Service in 2008 over laws that allow churches to avoid paying taxes but forbid them from endorsing political candidates. In protest, Hice endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain from the pulpit of his Bethlehem church and sent a copy of his remarks to tax authorities.

He also founded Ten Commandments-Georgia Inc., which raised funds to defend Barrow County against an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit aimed at forcing removal of the Ten Commandments display in its courthouse.