June 5 (Reuters) - In a debate on Tuesday, Republican U.S. presidential candidates largely skirted the issue of whether President George W. Bush should pardon Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby has been sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison in a case involving the leak of the name of a covert CIA agent whose husband opposed the administration's justification for going to war in Iraq.

Here are some of their responses.

FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI:

"I recommended over a thousand pardons to President Reagan when I was associate attorney general. I would see if it fit the criteria for pardon. I'd wait for the appeal. I think what the judge did today argues more in favor of a pardon."

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY:

"This is one of those situations where I go back to my record as governor. I didn't pardon anybody as governor, because I didn't want to overturn a jury."

ARIZONA SEN. JOHN MCCAIN:

"He's going through an appeal process. We've got to see what happens here."

FORMER WISCONSIN GOV. TOMMY THOMPSON:

"Bill Clinton committed perjury at a grand jury, lost his law license. Scooter Libby got 30 months. To me, it's not fair at all. But I would make sure the appeal was done properly, and then I would examine the record."

KANSAS SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, the only candidate to say Libby should be pardoned:

"Yes. The basic crime here didn't happen."

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