diff -r 58e72cb89848 Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py
--- a/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py	Wed Jan 30 22:26:49 2013 +0000
+++ b/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py	Wed Jan 30 23:40:21 2013 -0800
@@ -138,7 +138,8 @@
         self._finish_pending_start_element()
         self._write('<' + name)
         for (name, value) in attrs.items():
-            self._write(' %s=%s' % (name, quoteattr(value)))
+            if name.strip():
+                self._write(' %s=%s' % (name.strip(), quoteattr(value)))
         if self._short_empty_elements:
             self._pending_start_element = True
         else: