calendar.monthrange
provides this information:
calendar.monthrange(year, month)
Returns weekday of first day of the month and number of days in month, for the specified year and month.
>>> import calendar
>>> calendar.monthrange(2002, 1)
(1, 31)
>>> calendar.monthrange(2008, 2) # leap years are handled correctly
(4, 29)
>>> calendar.monthrange(2100, 2) # years divisible by 100 but not 400 aren't leap years
(0, 28)
so:
calendar.monthrange(year, month)[1]
seems like the simplest way to go.