diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index a67691dd..575ec8b5 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -545,6 +545,6 @@ class AuthObject(object):
         self.realm = realm
 
         if isinstance(handler, basestring):
-            self.handler = self._handlers.get(handler.lower(), urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler)
+            self.handler = self._handlers.get(handler.lower(), HTTPBasicAuthHandler)
         else:
             self.handler = handler