I got the same test_commands fail when building a Python2.7.1 which I downloaded yesterday; it's on an FC13 x86_64 server.
I've built python2.7 before using a similar machine, but it's not picking up my external libraries on a Sun Grid Engine, leaving me with import errors. Probably problems with the environment ($PYTHONHOME & $PYTHONPATH), but playing with these don't fix my batch jobs, so I've decided to build a cross-compiled version, which I've done on a Mac Pro before, but not a linux server, where --with-universal-archs doesn't work. I'm not a guru with using CFLAGS args during compilation, so I think I'll end up compiling it twice (long, I need this to work yesterday), using Jason's configure arguments (that -m32 is the ticket), and taking Jason's wrapper script, modifying it for my home dir. Thanks for posting that Jason!! I'd already started implementing something similar in my batch script, but yours looks much more thorough.
Whilst here, I wanted to advocate python a bit. I think it's awesome, and an article that articulates it's awesomeness fairly amusingly, can be found here:-
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3882
Still, I'm also disappointed with these build problems. I left `make test` running overnight and it had hung, using 100% of a CPU the whole night. I'm not even half-way to getting python compiled... :( Will probably also need to recompile ATLAS as well as numpy / biopython for both archs - no quick or easy feat.