Are there any cabinet seats left for President Obama to fill? If so, he should consider Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. He’d fit right in with Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer.

According to the Washington Times, the IRS has filed an $800,000 lien on the 2004 Kerry campaign for president, claiming it skipped out on forking over payroll taxes for its employees.

Of course, Kerry is denying it (is the IRS acting like Genghis Khan?).

The IRS filed the lien in the District of Columbia earlier this year, claiming that a previous attempt to collect the money was unsuccessful. “We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid,” the tax filing stated.

The IRS is taking action more than a year after the campaign closed its books and sent nearly $200,000 in leftover presidential campaign money to Mr. Kerry’s Senate election fund.

Mr. Kerry’s office said the IRS claim is erroneous and that the campaign paid its taxes correctly in 2004 when the Massachusetts Democrat challenged President Bush and lost.

So who’s telling the truth? It would be too easy to say Kerry’s lying … but then again, it would be too easy to lay blame on the IRS (just imagine what kind of “record-keeping mistakes” will take place once the government gets its hands on health care).

Though it doesn’t look good for Kerry:

Marcus S. Owens, a former director of the exempt-organizations division for the IRS, said political campaigns are no different from any other corporation when it comes to paying withholding taxes.

“Campaigns are employers just like any other business,” he said. “The IRS wants its employee withholding taxes.”

Mr. Owens said the Kerry campaign’s explanation of an IRS record-keeping problem is plausible. Record-keeping errors “aren’t unheard of,” he said.

“This could be something the IRS and campaign have been dealing with for a while,” he said.

Jay Soled, a tax specialist and professor at Rutgers University, said the IRS doesn’t usually file a lien unless it has been unable to collect the tax debt.

“The filing of a lien is usually a last step in the process,” he said.

Do any prominent Democrats do what Joe Biden calls “patriotic” and pay their taxes so the government can “spread the wealth around?”