solar@simple ~ $ emerge -pvd gconf-2

These are the packages that I would merge, in order:

Calculating dependencies  
Parent:    None
Depstring: gnome-base/gconf-2
Candidates: ['gnome-base/gconf-2']
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 2745, in ?
    retval,favorites=mydepgraph.select_files(myfiles)
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 979, in select_files
    self.mysd = self.select_dep(portage.root,mykey,arg=x)
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 1068, in select_dep
    myeb_matches = portage.portdb.xmatch("match-visible",x)
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 4729, in xmatch
    myval=match_from_list(mydep,self.xmatch("list-visible",None,mydep=mydep,mykey=mykey))
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 3327, in match_from_list
    raise KeyError, "Specific key requires an operator (%s) (try adding an '=')" % (mydep)
KeyError: "Specific key requires an operator (gnome-base/gconf-2) (try adding an '=')"