AUGUSTA – Maine’s two Democratic congressmen split with the state’s two Republican senators in votes this week over landmark legislation establishing new rules to try detainees in the war on terror.

Both Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins supported the legislation. Collins was in the 65 to 34 majority that approved the bill in the Senate on Thursday evening. Snowe said she would have voted for the bill but was traveling back to Washington after a funeral and missed the vote.

Both Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen were in the minority as the House approved the legislation 250 to 170, Friday afternoon after Michaud had voted for the bill earlier in the week.

“I heard from a lot of constituents, including a lot of lawyers on this,” Michaud said after his final vote. “There was a lot of concern that this would undermine the Geneva Convention and that was never my intention.”

He said when he first got the legislation, just hours before first voting on it, he thought it struck the right balance. He said it is an unfortunate example of what happens when lawmakers get lengthy, complicated legislation and do not have the time to review all of its implications.

“It happens far too often down here,” Michaud said. “Last year we had a committee chairman slip in a provision allowing him, and only him, to inspect anyone’s income tax return. That got fixed after people found out about it.”

The legislation will grant fewer protections to “unlawful enemy combatants” than are granted to prisoners of war. Hundreds of such detainees in the war on terror have been held several years without trial at a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while others have been held in secret prisons overseas.

Allen said the bill was too extreme in many ways, including a provision prohibiting enemy combatants from filing habeas corpus appeals with federal courts challenging their imprisonment.

“We have to have the right tools in order to handle people who don’t fit in the conventional definition of troops we capture on the field of war,” Allen said. “But this bill, this so-called compromise, violates our core values.”

Sen. Susan Collins disagreed. She said criticism was warranted for the first draft of the legislation, but that she and others raised several objections that were addressed in the final measure.

“I think it is important to realize that prisoners of war which are ranked higher in terms of the rights they are accorded through the Geneva Convention do not have habeas corpus rights,” Collins said Friday. “Enemy combatants should not be given rights that prisoners of war do not have.”

She said legislation passed last year does give the detainees a form of habeas corpus in that they can appeal their imprisonment to a military commission.

Sen. Olympia Snowe said the legislation meets several important standards, such as allowing the accused to review and challenge all the evidence against him and prohibiting the use of evidence obtained through illegal coercive methods.

“This legislation is consistent with the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Convention,” Snowe said. “I think it is absolutely essential that we maintain and uphold those commitments we have made as a nation.”

She said the original legislation was not acceptable to her, but that this measure meets the requirement set out by the U.S. Supreme Court that Congress set the rules, not the executive branch acting on its own.

The Maine Civil Liberties Union denounced the legislation, arguing it threatens civil liberties and human rights.

“Our leaders disregarded the pleas of Maine’s faith leaders, human rights activists, civil libertarians, Democrats and Republicans alike when they voted in favor of military commissions without sufficient human rights protections,” said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the MCLU. “Congress failed to take a clear stand against torture.”

The legislation rejects the right to a speedy trial granted citizens and limits the traditional right to self-representation by requiring that any defendants in the military courts accept military defense lawyers. The courts, composed of military officers, need not reach unanimous agreement to win convictions, except in death penalty cases. Appeals must go through a second military panel before reaching a federal civilian court.

At the same time, the legislation grants immunity from prosecution to any U.S. official for cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees who were captured by the military or the CIA before the end of last year.

President Bush praised the legislation and said in a statement he will sign the bill even with the changes in wording that he opposed.

“As our troops risk their lives to fight terrorism, this bill will ensure they are prepared to defeat today’s enemies and address tomorrow’s threats,” he said.

But Allen doubts the legislation will ever get used. He believes the measure is unconstitutional and will not withstand court scrutiny.

“There is no doubt this will be challenged,” he said.