diff --git a/Lib/httplib.py b/Lib/httplib.py
index c5e600c..43c8797 100644
--- a/Lib/httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/httplib.py
@@ -1236,6 +1236,8 @@
 
 class BadStatusLine(HTTPException):
     def __init__(self, line):
+        if not line:
+            line = repr(line)
         self.args = line,
         self.line = line
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
index c0c12e7..107b904 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@
         resp = httplib.HTTPResponse(sock)
         self.assertRaises(httplib.BadStatusLine, resp.begin)
 
+    def test_bad_status_repr(self):
+        exc = httplib.BadStatusLine('')
+        self.assertEquals(repr(exc), '''BadStatusLine("\'\'",)''')
+
     def test_partial_reads(self):
         # if we have a lenght, the system knows when to close itself
         # same behaviour than when we read the whole thing with read()