During remarks in New Hampshire in last month, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of “mission muddle” for expanding United States operations in Libya beyond enforcing a no-fly zone to a wider goal of preventing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from attacking his own people. “Now the president is saying we have to remove Qaddafi,” Mr. Romney said at the time, adding, “Who’s going to own Libya if we get rid of the government there?”
But on Monday evening, as the rebels surged through Tripoli, Mr. Romney told Neil Cavuto of Fox Business Network that “the world celebrates the idea of getting rid of Qaddafi.” And instead of assessing Mr. Obama’s actions, he called on a new Libyan government to extradite the man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Mr. Romney’s maneuvering reflected the difficulty for Republican presidential candidates as they reacted to news that could bolster Mr. Obama’s national security credentials. And the candidates’ responses on Monday illustrated the soul-searching within the party over Libya, as several maintained that the United States did not have enough at stake to merit any military involvement.
The developments were cause for “cautious celebration,” said Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, one of the first candidates to release a statement. “The lasting impact of events in Libya will depend on ensuring rebel factions form a unified, civil government that guarantees personal freedoms, and builds a new relationship with the West where we are allies instead of adversaries.”
In his statement, Mr. Romney expressed similar sentiments, but added a specific demand, “As a first step, I call on this new government to arrest and extradite the mastermind behind the bombing of Pan Am 103, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, so justice can finally be done.”
Mr. Megrahi was the only person convicted in the 1988 attack that left 270 dead, including 189 Americans — when a plane was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland. When his death from cancer appeared imminent in 2009, Scotland released him to Libya on compassion grounds, but he remains alive. The issue is of personal importance, Mr. Romney told the radio host Hugh Hewitt in March, because a friend from his days at the private equity firm Bain and Company was among those killed.
By concentrating on a specific American grievance, Mr. Romney can offer justification for supporting military action while laying the groundwork for criticizing Mr. Obama if Mr. Megrahi remains in Libya.
Reactions from candidates who had objected outright to military involvement showed a more striking tonal shift.
Jon M. Huntsman Jr. had been one of the sharpest critics of Mr. Obama’s actions in Libya, even though, as the ambassador to China, Mr. Huntsman had once been part of the Democratic president’s foreign policy team.
“Governor Huntsman’s view remains that intervention in Libya was a mistake and not core to our national security interest,” his spokesman, Tim Miller, said.
However, that objection was not evident in Mr. Huntsman’s official statement on Monday: “The impending fall of Colonel Qaddafi is one chapter in the developing story of a nation in turmoil. Qaddafi has been a longtime opponent of freedom, and I am hopeful — as the whole world should be — that his defeat is a step toward openness, democracy and human rights for a people who greatly deserve it.”
Representative Michele Bachmann stood by her original position on Monday. “I opposed U.S. military involvement in Libya and I am hopeful that our intervention there is about to end,” she said.
But in expressing hope that the new government would be “one that will be a good partner to the United States and the international community,” Mrs. Bachmann’s statement lacked earlier, ominous notes.
“We to this day don’t yet know who the rebel forces are that were helping,” she said during a June 13 debate. “There are some reports that they may contain Al Qaeda of North Africa. What possible vital American interests could we have to empower Al Qaeda of North Africa and Libya?”
Her spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, did not respond to an e-mail asking whether Mrs. Bachmann is still concerned about possible terrorist elements within the Transitional National Council.
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