How can I obtain the exception object on a generlized except statement?

[Chris Allen]

I am confused on one aspect of exception handling.  If you specify the
exception object type to match in an except statement it is possible
to also obtain the exception object itself, but I can't figure out how
to get the exception object when I don't specify a match.

for example:

>>> try: urlopen('http://www.google.com')
>>> except socket.error, msg:
>>>     print str(msg)

this works and I can do what I like with the exception object (msg).
but I can't do this with a simple except statment.

>>> except msg:

this won't work because it will think msg is the type to match

>>> except ,msg:

syntax error

>>> except *,msg:

syntax error

>>> except (),msg:

Hmm I didn't try that one before I started this post.  It doesn't give
me a syntax error.  I'll experiment.
Even if the above syntax works, is this the way to do this?  It seems
sort of funky.

How do I do this?  Thanks.