timeit.py examples in docs generate error

[3c273]

Hello,
I was reading the thread on try/except overhead and decided to try Alex's
examples but they kept generating exceptions. So I went to the docs and
tried the examples there (copied and pasted) with the same results (Win2k,
Python 2.4). Any help is appreciated. The output follows:
#1
C:\Python24\Lib>timeit.py 'if hasattr(int, "__nonzero__"): pass'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\timeit.py", line 285, in ?
    sys.exit(main())
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\timeit.py", line 249, in main
    t = Timer(stmt, setup, timer)
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\timeit.py", line 116, in __init__
    code = compile(src, dummy_src_name, "exec")
  File "<timeit-src>", line 6
    'if
      ^
SyntaxError: EOL while scanning single-quoted string

#2
C:\Python24\Lib>timeit.py 'try:' '  str.__nonzero__' 'except
AttributeError:' '
 pass'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\timeit.py", line 285, in ?
    sys.exit(main())
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\timeit.py", line 249, in main
    t = Timer(stmt, setup, timer)
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\timeit.py", line 116, in __init__
    code = compile(src, dummy_src_name, "exec")
  File "<timeit-src>", line 7
    '
    ^
SyntaxError: EOL while scanning single-quoted string

Thanks again,
Louis