comparison puzzle? bug?

[Charles Hixson]

I hesitate to call this a bug, as at my level of expertise that seems 
... unlikely.  But I can't think of any other explanation:

This is an extract from some longer code:
  print    "item = ", item
  print    "item[0] < lvl = %d < %d = " %(item[0], lvl), bool(item[0] < lvl)
  print    "item[0] == lvl = %d == %d = " %(item[0], lvl), bool(item[0] 
== lvl)
  print    "item[0] > lvl = %d > %d = " %(item[0], lvl), bool(item[0] == 
lvl)
yields:
item =  [1, 'A', '/home/.../data/n1a.gif', <Surface(102x78x32 SW)>]
tem[0] < lvl = 1 < 0 =  False
item[0] == lvl = 1 == 0 =  False
item[0] > lvl = 1 > 0 =  False

I abbreviated that file path.  Any ideas what's going on?