Hello. First time here, beginner at Python. I have verified that the
Google tip link in the previous to fix IDLE works for me. Post in question:

**
[Kevin's post of 6.Oct, 02:58]
You can avoid this problem by building Python yourself and putting
/Library/Frameworks first on the search path for Tcl/Tk. Look in
setup.py in the source code, around line  1438 (in the
'detect_tkinter_darwin' function), and either comment out
/System/Library or put it underneath /Library/Frameworks. This is what
the official build from Python.org should do--look first in
/Library/Frameworks and then fall back on /System/Library/Frameworks.
I'm not sure why it doesn't.

** 

In setup.py, I simply put /Library/Frameworks/ first as outlined above,
and then did a config-make-install of the Framework version of Python.
IDLE now does not silently fail now, but runs as 'expected'.

-Leo Marihart
 Python Newb, 
 Somewhat more experienced shell guy