PgPool-II - does it do re-connect?

I am looking ahead to when postgresql 9.x is non-beta and how
we can best make use of the "virtually synchronous" replication.

At our site, we have a load balancer appliance that works very well
in that it can direct a connection to one of a number
of back ends. When one back end goes away, connections will
be created to the remaining back ends. I think that this will
work well for the postgres failover, however, the database connection
will drop (I don't see how existing connections can be failed to the
hot-standby postgres server) and need to be established again.
Since I can not rely on the applications to perform the reconnect,
I was wondering if anyone knows if PgPool-II can accomplish this for
me. If it can, then the applications will not be aware that they have
been reconnected, they will just be aware that any outstanding transaction
failed.

Can anyone comment on this functionality of PgPool-II or on this
approach to failover in general?

Evan Rempel.