Kerry's office faults IRS in filing of tax lien against '04 campaign

The Massachusetts Democrat said the IRS mishandled payroll tax forms that he said were correctly filed by his campaign in 2005. "This is a clerical matter, nothing more, nothing less," said Kerry spokeswoman Whitney Smith.

IRS spokesman Anthony Burke declined to comment yesterday, adding that IRS employees are precluded by law from commenting on tax cases. The IRS notified the Kerry campaign in January 2008 that it had failed to file certain payroll tax forms for the 2004 tax year.

Smith said the IRS must have lost the payroll forms since the Kerry campaign had previously filed them in 2005. But the Kerry campaign filed them again in 2008 in response to the IRS request, she said. "We gladly resubmitted all the forms needed to fill in the gaps, end of story," she said.

The IRS filed the lien earlier this year in the District of Columbia, saying it had tried to collect the money previously from the Kerry campaign. "We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid," said the lien, first reported yesterday by The Washington Times.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a White House statement, Obama said he is confident that with Leach as chairman, the endowment will continue its mission of "supporting the humanities and giving the American public access to the rich resources of our culture." The endowment, created in 1965, supports the country's endeavors in scholarship and teaching, principally in the areas of history, literature, and philosophy. In his 2010 budget proposal, Obama requested $171. 3 million for the agency, an increase of $16 million.

Leach, who represented Iowa in the House for 30 years and was co-chairman of the Congressional Humanities Caucus, endorsed Obama in the presidential election, and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

He is the latest Republican tapped by Obama. On Tuesday, the president picked GOP congressman John McHugh from New York to be the next Army secretary. At the Pentagon, he will join Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration.

Obama also chose a Republican congressman, Ray LaHood, for transportation secretary, and nominated a GOP governor, Jon Huntsman of Utah, for the high-profile ambassadorship in China.

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A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey found a statistical dead heat among Republican contenders, with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee at 22 percent, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at 21 percent and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney also at 21 percent.

Huckabee and Romney lost out to John McCain for the GOP nomination last year, while Palin was McCain's running mate. The difference among them was well within the poll's margin of sampling error.

The poll found that 13 percent of Republicans backing former House speaker Newt Gingrich, 6 percent supporting former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and 10 percent someone else. Missing from the lead pack is Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who announced Tuesday he will not seek a third term as governor, immediately setting off speculation that he will run in 2012.

Romney is also giving every indication he is seriously considering another bid. In the latest in a series of TV interviews, he was asked on NBC's "Today" show yesterday about 2012.

"No, I'm looking right now at trying to get some Republicans getting elected in 2009 and 2010," Romney said, adding, "And what happens later, that's a very distant horizon."

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