diff -r aea58e1cae75 -r 2b2744cfb08f Lib/urllib/request.py
--- a/Lib/urllib/request.py	Sun Sep 08 14:14:38 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/urllib/request.py	Sun Sep 08 12:54:33 2013 -0400
@@ -271,7 +271,8 @@
             origin_req_host = request_host(self)
         self.origin_req_host = origin_req_host
         self.unverifiable = unverifiable
-        self.method = method
+        if method:
+            self.method = method
 
     @property
     def full_url(self):
@@ -320,12 +321,8 @@
 
     def get_method(self):
         """Return a string indicating the HTTP request method."""
-        if self.method is not None:
-            return self.method
-        elif self.data is not None:
-            return "POST"
-        else:
-            return "GET"
+        default_method = "POST" if self.data is not None else "GET"
+        return getattr(self, 'method', default_method)
 
     def get_full_url(self):
         return self.full_url