By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Oh good lord. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has paid $7,040 in back taxes, plus interest, after discovering "unintentional errors" in her 2005-2007 tax returns, the Associated Press is reporting.

Sebelius, who is in the midst of confirmation hearings to be U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, is known as a scrupulous public official. Her husband is a judge. I think it's pretty safe to take them at their word that the errors were indeed unintentional -- though people in their position really have to get their taxes right.

Sebelius's errors amount to much less than the amounts owed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ($34,000) and one-time HHS nominee Tom Daschle ($140,000).

How much damage this will cause her will depend on the errors themselves. Daschle owed money on to cover a luxury car and driver provided to him by an investment firm. That makes folks mad. If Sebelius's errors end up being accounting errors, I think she'll slide by, in part because it's getting to be so hard to find someone who's done their taxes right.