How do you safely and efficiently get the row id after an insert with mysql using MySQLdb in python?

I have a simple table in mysql with the following fields:

• id -- Primary key, int, autoincrement
• name -- varchar(50)
• description -- varchar(256)

Using MySQLdb, a python module, I want to insert a name and description into the table, and get back the id.

In pseudocode:

db = MySQLdb.connection(...)
queryString = "INSERT into tablename (name, description) VALUES" % (a_name, a_desc);"

db.execute(queryString);
newID = ???