by Tom Brune of Newsday

In 1973, a 29-year-old federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani indicted a Brooklyn congressman, unknowingly creating a political opening for an ambitious 23-year-old named Chuck Schumer.

It is the first and least known link between two powerful New York politicians whose paths have crossed and careers intersected in often surprising ways over the past four decades.

But it certainly wasn't the last.

Just two weeks ago, Sen. Schumer ( D-N.Y) found himself defying his own party to confirm U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a retired Manhattan judge and close friend of the former mayor.

Schumer and Giuliani may seem an odd pairing, but they have connected in ways that often have been mutually beneficial in the past and might be again in the future.

Now that history could prove politically awkward in this presidential season for Schumer, a prominent backer of Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Giuliani, the leading GOP contender.

See the rest of the story this week in Newsday:

Republicans rail against Schumer for launching filibusters against conservative judge nominees, leading his party's takeover of the Senate and demanding that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resign.

Democrats criticize Giuliani's years as mayor for his confrontational dismantling of liberal programs, a lack of tolerance for dissent and allowing overzealous policing to alienate minorities.

Still, they share more than reputations as a liberal Democrat and an increasingly conservative Republican would suggest.

"They both have a middle-class, outer-borough sensibility," said Fred Siegel, a Giuliani biographer.

"They see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues," added Democratic consultant George Arzt. "They both view themselves as champions of middle-class values."

Schumer, 56, and Giuliani, 63, share some unconventional common ground: Both were born in Brooklyn, the home of the Dodgers, but grew up as Yankees fans.

They do have basic differences personally and politically: Schumer is a traditional Democrat and Giuliani a free-market Republican.

But they also have similar hawkish views on crime, terrorism and protecting Israel, and lenient views on abortion, gay rights and gun control — positions out of step with the base and ideologues of their parties.

They have common friends and associates in the political, business and social world of New York City, including many big-name campaign donors such as Giuliani's presidential campaign backers Paul Singer and Ken Langone.

And they are both driven men, ambitious and self-confident, known for their love of attention.

Neither Schumer nor Giuliani would comment for this article.

While not personal friends — they now only see each other at the annual Sept. 11 ceremony in New York, a source said — they remain friendly.

Schumer tells reporters he likes Giuliani, and Giuliani talks about how he named Schumer's wife, Iris Weinshall, to his mayoral cabinet. Both talk fondly about working together on crime legislation in 1994.

"There's a kind of cordial connection," Siegel said. "There is never a bitter clash between them."

The scrutiny that attends a run for the White House, however, is raising links they would just as soon leave in the past.

Take Giuliani's inadvertent opening of the door for Schumer's political career.

In 1973, a grand jury led by Giuliani indicted Democratic Rep. Bert Podell on charges of taking $41,000 in bribes. That led to Podell's defeat in the 1974 Democratic primary by state Assemblyman Steve Solarz, leaving his Albany seat open.

Schumer, just out of law school, jumped at the opportunity and became at 23 the youngest member of the state Legislature in his first political victory.

And Podell pleaded guilty, giving a victory to Giuliani and his team, which included an up-and-coming lawyer named Michael Mukasey.

A decade later, Giuliani was faced with a different decision: Should he approve a proposed federal indictment of Schumer?

Giuliani had joined the Reagan administration as associate attorney general. Schumer had made the jump to Congress in a successful 1980 race, but his campaign had come under a cloud.

A Village Voice article reported that Schumer had packed a state Assembly committee that he chaired with six campaign workers.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors reacted with an innovative charge: mail fraud, since Schumer had mailed vouchers for their state pay from New York City to Albany.

Schumer's camp complained the charges were politically motivated and worthless. Schumer insisted he had broken no laws.

In late 1982, Brooklyn's U.S. attorney and an assistant argued for the indictment in a Washington meeting with Giuliani and his boss, Deputy Attorney General Edward Schmults.

The meeting was leaked to the newspapers. The decision was in Giuliani's hands, stories said.

In a three-page letter dated Jan. 21, 1983, Giuliani called it off, saying the case was not appropriate for a federal prosecution and that it foundered on ambiguous local laws. "New York has not clearly drawn a line between legal or illegal use of staff for campaigning," Giuliani wrote.

He kicked the matter to local prosecutors, but after several attempts, they dropped the case in 1985.

The Voice later reported that it was Schmults who made the final call, overruling Giuliani, who had signed off on the indictment.

But a former Justice Department official familiar with the matter recently confirmed accounts at the time that it was, in fact, Giuliani who had made the decision.

Giuliani had saved Schumer's career from what would have been a damaging legal fight at best, and from a crashing end at worst.

After another decade passed, Schumer had become an established congressman and Giuliani New York City's mayor. For the next eight years they often collaborated on projects for the city.

Former Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari said the two had "a special relationship, considering they represented different parties."

The key issue was law and order. "Schumer was closer to Giuliani on crime issues than he was to liberal Democrats," said Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

The vehicle was the 1994 crime bill, which included the COPS grant program to add 100,000 police to city streets while banning assault weapons and restricting gun purchases.

At Giuliani's request, Schumer expanded the COPS grant legislation to allow cities also to hire civilians and buy computers. Giuliani put his prestige on the line to lobby GOP House members and to promote gun control.

Over five years, the Justice Department granted more than half a billion dollars to Giuliani's signature crackdown on crime, more than it gave any other city in the country.

In 1998, Schumer won a bitter battle for the Senate, with Giuliani waiting to the last minute to endorse the incumbent Republican, Al D'Amato — whom neither could stand.

Two years later, Giuliani named Weinshall as his transportation commissioner.

"She is a professional," said Arzt, "and it helps when you're governing in New York to have the state's senator's wife in the fold."

Since Giuliani left the mayor's office after 2001, the links have been friends and associates. Many of the same donors, especially from Wall Street, give to both the GOP presidential contender and Wall Street's man in Washington.

Yet Schumer also gets money from unexpected sources: George Steinbrenner, Yankees owner and Republican stalwart; one-time Giuliani aide Robert Harding, and Peter Powers, Giuliani's friend and first deputy mayor.

Several top Giuliani presidential fundraisers also gave to Schumer: hedge fund billionaire Singer, investor Langone, financier Carl Icahn, attorney Mel Immergut, accounting chief James Turley and advertising honcho John Wren.

For his part, Schumer has helped Giuliani friends in Washington, like former city corporation counsel Paul Crotty in his appointment to a seat on the federal bench.

Then there is Mukasey.

Schumer first named him in 2003 as a compromise choice Democrats could confirm for a possible Supreme Court vacancy, thinking the White House would never actually pick him.

In March, as he argued on a Sunday morning talk show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had to go, Schumer suggested Mukasey as one of three acceptable replacements.

Why Mukasey?

Many point to his solid reputation in New York legal circles and his much praised handling of terrorism trials, and said Schumer shares the judge's sensibilities.

Others say a former Schumer aide chose him. The aide won't discuss it.

Giuliani, asked at a recent briefing, said he never talked to Schumer about Mukasey.

Yet there is every indication Schumer was just as surprised as everyone else when Mukasey was nominated.

On the hook, Schumer delivered, breaking from the majority of his own party who had abandoned the judge over his waterboarding dodge.

While the battle was uncomfortable, it sets up Schumer as the man in the middle if next year's presidential election comes down to New Yorkers Clinton and Giuliani.

Tom Brune reports for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper