looking for a python whois interface

[matthew snyder]

i'm looking for an interface to whois that i can use to determine
if a given domain name is registered.  right now, i'm doing:

# `domain' is already checked for malicious characters
res = os.popen("%s %s" % (PATH_TO_WHOIS, domain)).read()

then re.match()ing res to see if it contains whatever string
whois returns today that indicates that the domain exists.  

i'd like something a bit more elegant.  any pointers?

matthew