With the nation at war and America's standing in the world plummeting by the second, the House of Representatives taking a day off to watch a football game is akin to a fiddle-restringing party in advance of Nero's annual family cookout.

   The punditry and political world may be atwitter at the number of historic precedents newly minted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has managed to set: first woman in the chair, first Italian-American, etc.

   But recent events may cause already-jaded voters to wonder if Pelosi might not be a softer-suited, pearl-clad version of the same old thing.

   Exhibit A is the "First 100 Hours," in which the Democrats vowed to push through the agenda that won them a majority in November. While many of their goals, including overturning restrictions on stem-cell research, reducing the price of prescription drugs and implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, are laudable, the name is a bit of poll-tested false advertising right up there with "Contract with America."

   Trouble is, while Pelosi was sworn in as speaker Jan. 4, the Dems' First-100-Hours clock didn't start ticking until Jan. 9, more than 100 hours later.

   Exhibit B is Pelosi's declaration that the House would finally start working a five-day week, only to have the Democratic leadership give lawmakers a day off to watch the aforementioned football game between the University of Florida and Ohio State. And postpone those pressing 100 hours.

   No wonder voters are cynical.

   Exhibit C is the speaker's handling of Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who is under federal investigation for bribery.

   Jefferson, you may remember, is the guy in whose Frigidaire FBI agents found a very cool alleged $90,000 in 2006. The nine-term congressman, who represents part of greater New Orleans, recently won a re-election runoff with 57 percent of the vote, which says as much about voters there as it does Jefferson.

   During last fall's campaign, as voter tolerance for ethics violations fell to snake's-belly levels, Pelosi seized the moment and took the very public step of stripping Jefferson of his coveted Ways and Means Committee seat.

   Message received: Democrats won't shirk from punishing wrongdoers, even alleged ones. Goodbye Duke Cunningham. Hello Speaker Pelosi.

   Fast-forward to 2007, as Pelosi promises Americans that she'll "lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history."

   To Pelosi's credit, the House pushed through a bill that would ban gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists, and would require public disclosure of sponsors of pork-barrel earmarks that cost taxpayers some $67 billion last year.

   But then there's Jefferson.

   The Louisiana Democrat, who ethically is to Democrats what Tom DeLay was to the GOP, with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus has been trying to patch things up with colleagues who ran on a clean-up-Congress ticket.

   In an attempt at fence mending, Pelosi handed Jefferson a post on the admittedly unprestigious Small Business Committee.

   That was, according to Capitol Hill paper Roll Call, about the same time Jefferson mailed a letter to colleagues at taxpayers' expense soliciting campaign cash. That's a blatant violation of House rules.

   One wonders why someone as concerned about ethics, appearances and even a whiff of impropriety as Pelosi seems to be would tolerate such behavior, or reward Jefferson with any committee seat at all until he's been cleared of criminal charges.

   Innocent until proven guilty is a legal standard, not a political one. To many Americans, this is less "a new direction" than sleazy, ho-hum business as usual.

   And until the speaker demonstrates a zero-tolerance approach for even alleged misconduct in her flock, Jefferson will be the albatross around her neck, the name Republicans use for the next two years to peck at Democratic hypocrisy.