The most interesting mini-contest in the GOP presidential race this week is between Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who have been bashing each other with particular gusto on foreign policy.

Among other things, the contest may serve as a test of the GOP’s support for maximally interventionist foreign policy.

Cruz targeted Rubio directly earlier this week, criticizing his support for military action against Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, and linking the Florida senator to Hillary Clinton in the process.

“Senator Rubio emphatically supported Hillary Clinton in toppling Qaddafi in Libya. I think that made no sense,” Cruz said to Bloomberg Politics, as Brian Doherty noted earlier. “Qaddafi was a bad man, he had a horrible human rights record. And yet…he had become a significant ally in fighting radical Islamic terrorism.”

Cruz insisted that the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi was a “direct result of that massive foreign policy blunder.” (Sounds like Cruz has been reading Michael Brendan Dougherty.)