Instantiate Class DB Connection

[bam720]

I am having some trouble controlling my database connection. I have one module DbConnection.py that handles connecting to the database. I call it and get returned the database handle object just fine. as such

dbh = DbConnection.new()

I have another module to handle certain queries (this is a multi step process each being call as cgi scripts).

Order.SetDatabaseHandle(dbh)

The trouble I am having is in Order.

#
# Class variables
#
dbh # Database Handle [COLOR=red]I need to instantiate the handle class wide[/color]

def SetDatabaseHandle(data):
  dbh = data

def Create(data):
  cursor = dbh.cursor()

How do I instantiate it class wide? I could just create a connection wherever I call the create function but don't want to have too many open connections at any given time. Any help?