Perl is mainly designed to let you do anything you need to do. Sysadmin tasks are one very common application of Perl and with the number and breadth of modules on CPAN I'd be surprised if learning Python gave you any more power.

The choice between Perl and Python is mainly a matter of personal taste. Some people find Perl more to their liking, some like Python more. Could you elaborate on that "hard way" you mentioned? Maybe you overlooked something and you'd have more luck asking about that problem, instead of about some other language to use.