NY Daily News

When Sarah Palin arrived in the midst of my book signing Thursday, I could hear the subject of "The Book of Mychal" laughing from on high.

"My God is the God of Surprises," Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge had so often said.

I had arrived minutes earlier for the honor of a signing for my new biography at Tribute WTC. I was as solemn as always at the avowedly nonpartisan, nonprofit museum and visitor's center at the edge of the sacred site where Mychal and so many others perished on 9/11.

Mychal was always one for a bit of mischief. I felt right away that he was at work when one of my hosts offered a surprise bordering on the surreal.

"The Secret Service just called and said Sarah Palin is coming."

Minutes later, in she strode, hairstyle, designer glasses and lipstick that made her seem no less a pit bull.

"Are you sure it's not Tina Fey?" somebody whispered.

Palin had come to see Tribute, not for the signing. Secret Service agents preceded her, dour campaign types followed.

Her guide was Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter of distinction who lost his firefighter son, Jonathan, on 9/11.

Ielpi is also one of those who took it upon themselves to create Tribute while the big shots squabbled and stalled over a memorial. He guided Palin inside past exhibits that include his murdered son's turnout coat and images of Mychal in his final moments.

One gallery has 1,200 photos and memories submitted by families of the murdered innocents. There is also a child's drawing showing a flock of hearts swooping in to heal the stricken towers.

The eyes behind those famous glasses welled with what crosses all political differences.

Ielpi always carries a holy card bearing his son's photo and he presented it to Palin. My hosts suggested it would be fitting for me to give her a book, and there I was, a liberal puke of a columnist, faced with writing an inscription for Sarah Palin.

I thought of Mychal, who had bridged all differences. I recalled that Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Mayor Dave Dinkins and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani had all welled up while talking to me of their fallen friend. I now wrote in the title page what I felt sure to be true.

"For Governor Palin, who would have loved Mychal."

I was introduced to her and I handed her the book, not entirely sure she knew who Mychal was. I opened the book to what some have called the modern Pieta. Her eyes welled again as she gazed at the photo of the anguished first responders carrying him from the fiery ruins.

Ielpi presented Palin with another holy card he carries, one with a photo of Mychal on the front and a prayer he composed on the back. She placed the card inside the book and closed it, a woman who had come out of seeming nowhere, delightful to some, terrifying to others.

"Mychal always said, 'If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans for tomorrow,'" I told her, adding, "I guess a lot of people in this country have been feeling that way lately."

Palin stepped over to sign the visitor's log.

"From your 49th state.... We will never forget....

Governor Sarah Palin, ALASKA"

Sarah Palin, ALASKA"

She spoke for a moment to Rose Ellen Dowdell, whose firefighter husband died on 9/11. Her younger son, James, is a firefighter. Her older son, Patrick, is in Iraq. Palin replied that her older son, Track, was deploying there, as if this were not something everybody knew.

The "Book of Mychal" in hand, Palin proceeded on to the FDNY memorial alongside the firehouse next door. She stopped inside the quarters of Engine 10/Ladder 10, then crossed to the summit of the ramp leading down into Ground Zero. The construction people she spoke with included Brian Lyons, whose brother perished on 9/11.

In what was described as a campaign first, Palin afterward fielded four questions from reporters that touched on 9/11, the war on terrorism, the economic crisis and Alaska politics. Her answers offered no surprises.

Back at the book signing in Tribute, those of us who loved the fallen chaplain were sure the visit had been the God of Surprises at work, a true Mychal moment.

"It's gotta be Mychal Judge!" a fire chief exclaimed.