Python version

When I attempt to use a static method from within the body of the class, and define the static method using the built-in staticmethod function as a decorator, like this:

class Klass(object):    @staticmethod  # use as decorator    def _stat_func():        return 42    _ANS = _stat_func()  # call the staticmethod    def method(self):        ret = Klass._stat_func() + Klass._ANS        return ret

I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):  File "call_staticmethod.py", line 1, in <module>    class Klass(object):   File "call_staticmethod.py", line 7, in Klass    _ANS = _stat_func()   TypeError: 'staticmethod' object is not callable

I understand why this is happening (descriptor binding), and can work around it by manually converting _stat_func() into a staticmethod after its last use, like so:

class Klass(object):    def _stat_func():        return 42    _ANS = _stat_func()  # use the non-staticmethod version    _stat_func = staticmethod(_stat_func)  # convert function to a static method    def method(self):        ret = Klass._stat_func() + Klass._ANS        return ret

So my question is:

    Are there cleaner or more "Pythonic" ways to accomplish this?