Not to butt in too much, but I have a related use case that would benefit from being able to statically link to OpenSSL: I have an environment in which dynamic modules are acceptable, but where the entire Python install benefits from being relocatable and used on different hosts with the same *basic* state (same glibc, etc). OpenSSL isn't one of those pieces of basic state (for bad reasons, but ones that I can't control), so having a Python distribution that links it statically would save me some amount of complexity.

I realize this introduces a significant support burden, and that dealing with myraid OpenSSL configurations is already a pain. So I'm content to shoulder this as my own local build patch -- I'm only following up to note another use case that might benefit from a full-fledged `configure` option, should this ever get re-visited.