operator.itemgetter is a general but clumsy abstraction.  Almost all the time when I use it, it's either to get the first or the second item of a tuple.  I think that use case is common enough that it's worth including them in the operator module:

   fst = itemgetter(0)
   snd = itemgetter(1)

I end up putting the above definitions in my programs very frequently and it would be nice if I could stop ;)

fst and snd are mathematical names abbreviating "first" and "second" in some areas of math, like sin and cos abbreviate "sine" and "cosine".  The names fst and snd are also used in Haskell and *ML.  However, calling them "first" and "second" might be stylistically preferable to some Python users and would also be ok.

-1

That would provide too many ways to do it.  
It is more important to learn how to use one way correctly.