staticmethod makes my brain hurt

[Roy Smith]

When I run this (python 2.6.1):

class C:
    @staticmethod
    def foo():
        pass

    print "inside", foo, callable(foo)

print "outside", C.foo, callable(C.foo)

I get:

inside <staticmethod object at 0x421df0> False
outside <function foo at 0x41e6f0> True

I don't understand.  Why is foo not callable inside of the class 
definition?  Where this comes up is that I'm trying to use a callable 
default in mongoengine:

class User(Document):
    @staticmethod
    def _get_next_id():
      [blah, blah, blah]  
      return id

    user_id = IntField(required=True, default=_get_next_id)

The way mongoengine works is if callable(default) is true, it calls 
default() to get the real value to use.  At the point where the 
IntField() call is made, _get_next_id is not callable, and eventually I 
end up with:

ValidationError: <staticmethod object at 0x2a3c1a0> could not be 
converted to int