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If you are using ubuntu Linux there was a patch added to the python-mysql package that added the ability to set that same MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT option (see here). I have not tried it though.
Unfortunately, the patch was later removed due to a conflict with autoconnect and transations (described here).
The comments from that page say: 1.2.2-7 Published in intrepid-release on 2008-06-19
python-mysqldb (1.2.2-7) unstable; urgency=low
[ Sandro Tosi ] * debian/control - list items lines in description starts with 2 space, to avoid reformat on webpages (Closes: #480341)
[ Bernd Zeimetz ] * debian/patches/02_reconnect.dpatch: - Dropping patch: Comment in Storm which explains the problem:
# Here is another sad story about bad transactional behavior. MySQL
# offers a feature to automatically reconnect dropped connections.
# What sounds like a dream, is actually a nightmare for anyone who
# is dealing with transactions. When a reconnection happens, the
# currently running transaction is transparently rolled back, and
# everything that was being done is lost, without notice. Not only
# that, but the connection may be put back in AUTOCOMMIT mode, even
# when that's not the default MySQLdb behavior. The MySQL developers
# quickly understood that this is a terrible idea, and removed the
# behavior in MySQL 5.0.3. Unfortunately, Debian and Ubuntu still
# have a patch right now which *reenables* that behavior by default
# even past version 5.0.3.
I had a similar problem with MySQL and Python, and the solution that worked for me was to upgrade MySQL to 5.0.27 (on Fedora Core 6; your system may work fine with a different version).
I tried a lot of other things, including patching the Python libraries, but upgrading the database was a lot easier and (I think) a better decision.