I'm trying to get pylint to give html output when I run Validate syntax on a python file in TextMate. I installed pycheckmate, pylint, and created a .pylintrc file in $HOME that sets the output format to html.
In TextMate's Advanced control panel, in the Shell Variables tab, I have TM_PYCHECKER set to /usr/local/share/python/pylint. If I trigger Validate Syntax, it runs pylint with all the default options, and gives me the output. If I change TM_PYCHECKER to /usr/local/share/python/pylint --rcfile "$HOME/.pylintrc" and Validate Syntax again, I get:

Please install PyChecker, PyFlakes or Pylint for more extensive code
  checking.

If I run /usr/local/share/python/pylint from the commandline, without any arguments, the output is html, so I know in that case that it's reading the rcfile. What am I missing?
A somewhat educated guess: try replacing $HOME by the absolute path to your home directory.  Shell variables like $HOME are probably not available to use in TextMate's control panel.
UPDATE: Looking at the pycheckmate.py script included with the Python.tmbundle included with the version of TextMate I have, it appears that it is not possible to include arguments , like --rcfile /path/to/rcfile.  The value of TM_PYCHECKER is expected to only be the path to the checker binary with no arguments.  But, if you make your own copy of the Python.tmbundle, you should be able to edit pycheckmate.py to do as you wish.
pylint ignores .pylintrc when run from TextMate