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The Ice Man cometh, baby. Straight to the House Homeland Security Committee.

The "Ice Man" is Louisiana Democratic Congressman William Jefferson.

For the past 18 months, Jefferson has been the target of a federal investigation. To date, a couple of interesting things have happened. First, a member of Jefferson's staff, along with a longtime campaign supporter, have copped pleas - the latter claiming he was bribing Jefferson to gain government contracts for African businesses.

But what is really cool - heh, heh - about the Jefferson case is the $90,000 the FBI found on ice, tucked in his freezer and wrapped in aluminum foil. Yes, that's right. Nearly $100-large in cold, hard cash. It had to be said.

Still, the feds haven't put the hammer down on Jefferson. So, in her ongoing effort to create "the most ethical Congress in history," as she said last November, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi felt it only right to reach into her growing bag of hypocrisy, pull out the name of Jefferson and place him on nothing less than the House Homeland Security Committee.

Few committees are as action-packed as Homeland Security has become or promises to be. Members are, as one might expect, privy to a great deal of top-secret information - including reviews of ongoing investigations.

However, according to the Washington Post, Jefferson won't have "direct oversight" of such investigations. A comforting promise, voiced as it were, by leaders of the "most ethical Congress in history."

If you're scratching your head over this much-coveted appointment, according to the Post, you're not alone. But just a touch of research provides some understanding.

When the Jefferson story came to light last summer, Pelosi removed him from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Surprisingly, the Congressional Black Caucus was angered by Pelosi's action. All right, it wasn't so surprising.

Ultimately, then, Pelosi's recent action amounts to making amends to the powerful, ultra-liberal Black Caucus.

It also amounts to more relief for Republicans, however. Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress continue to stumble about, relying on their missteps to be reported by the likes of the New York Times and MSNBC, as strokes of genius.

Maybe that will buy them some time, but Dems have a bigger problem. They actually think they won last November, when, really, Republicans lost. The Democrats had virtually no agenda last fall, only a constant message that they weren't Republicans.

Perhaps that was enough for the first 100 hours. But now - as we stagger from the mind-numbing debate over a nonbinding resolution regarding the troop surge, into a debate about cutting funding to the war, to a pledge by powerful liberal House members Henry Waxman and John Dingell that they would soon begin, in essence, to bleed the Bush administration into paralysis by process of investigative hearings - the Democratic Congress is coming into view.

As it does, voters' attitudes are growing cooler than Congressman Jefferson's mad money.

Gardner is an Albuquerque writer and political consultant.