Persistent "waiting for network connection" and buddy lists don't load on open

[Dennis Carr]

Running Pidgin 2.7.3 in Debian Stable, installed from the repositories.

Two things seem to be happening in the client. 

One, whenever I open the client when I log in, none of the lists load.
This is remedied by opening the account management window, and
disabling and re-enabling each protocol. 

The second thing that happens is the "Waiting for network connection"
bit remains in the status pulldown toward the bottom of the window.

For tourist information, I have configured a Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AIM, and
two XMPP connections (one for Livejournal, one for Gmail).  

How can I fix this?

-Dennis Carr