hesitation from a stop, long cranking times

Starting the car sometimes works great, and sometimes takes an extra 3-5 seconds of cranking to start. In the cold, in the heat, whether the engine is at operating temperature or sat overnight, the problem happens about 7/10 times.

Also, when stopped at a light, or stopped waiting to cross a street, the pedal response is delayed. Sometimes not very noticeable, but usually noticeable, and once recently the rpms dropped almost to zero.

I suspected fuel valve or pump, but since the engine temp and ambient temperatures don't affect consistency, I am now led to believe MAF or IAC issue. No check engine light, but I have not scanned for codes.

Thanks!


Edit (just saw edit button):

I should clarify, the hesitation happens when pressing the gas after stopped, and sometimes not even stopped all the way. Could also be crank or cam sensor, but I figured that would be a more consistent problem.

Engine runs fine otherwise, although I do hear a whine through first gear when going through parking lots at low speed. And something tells me the p/s pump is being weird; a couple of times when I steered all the way one way or the other to park the car, the engine will seem to struggle/bog, or drop in RPMs.