If Sen. Arlen Specter is trying to come across as confident and measured about his party switch, he ought to choose his words more carefully.

“I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election,” he said in a statement.

Evidently, Old Man Specter is nervous about the Democratic candidates he’ll face: The word anxious implies worry or anxiety. (It can also imply desire, but it always suggests nervousness.) Eager, on the other hand, implies desire. If someone is eager to take on the competition, she is looking forward to it, saying, “Bring it on!”

Then again, if you were 79 and on the verge of death, the prospect of mounting another campaign would be a specter.

Miss California is convinced Perez Hilton cost her the crown.

“If I had any other question, I know I would have won,” Carrie Prejean told Fox News.

Here’s the problem — well, one of the problems.

Carrie is speaking in the past perfect tense, describing an action (the pageant interview) that happened before a related event (her analysis of it). To form such a sentence, use the word had followed by the past participle.

* If I had known Perez Hilton would be a judge, I wouldn’t have participated.

* I had left the pageant before they arrived.

In this case, had is the past participle. Carrie had Perez’s question. It still has to follow the word had, which indicates the tense. So Carrie should have said, “If I had had any other question, I know I would have won.”

When you come so close to being named Miss USA, it’s understandable that a woman would have a difficult time dealing with the past.

Perez’s response in this indirect exchange also contained a grammatical error.

“I think it’s kind of very rude of her to be saying in interviews like she was yesterday that if she had been given another question she would have won and that she felt like a winner,” the blogger said.

While he mastered the past participles, he erred with his use of the word like. Like is used for nouns. He acted like a jerk. She complained like a baby. But when a verb is present — in this case, saying — you need a conjunction.

Perez should have said, “I think it’s rude of her to be saying in interviews, as she was yesterday, that if she had been given another question she would have won.”

So there you have it: The exchange between the Beauty and the Blogger is flawed on both sides.

Good grief.

The White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll appears to have filled the president with such glee he became lightheaded and experienced some grammatical confusion.

“To see so many children out here having a great time just fills Michelle and myself and the entire family with a whole lot of joy,” President Obama said.

“Myself” drips with egotism and formality. When in doubt, avoid it. It’s often misused and applies to a rare situation: when you’re both the object of an action and the subject of the same sentence. (That’s what makes it a reflexive pronoun). For example, I see myself in the mirror. I treated myself to a Lindt chocolate bunny.

In this case, the president should have said the Egg Roll “fills Michelle and me” with joy. Then we could all be joyous.

Kendra Wilkinson’s latest blog post is titled, “Me and Hank at the shooting range.” It features, unsurprisingly, a close-up of Kendra and a tiny shot of her fiance, Hank Baskett.

This is an example where grammar and etiquette align. Anytime you have multiple subjects and the speaker is among them, she should go last. (Kendra’s not the only young blonde who’s made this mistake.)

See what too much peroxide can do to the brain — and too much attention can do to the ego?

“Lindsay has always enjoyed a Red Bull, but she eats. Everybody needs to mind their own business and stop worrying about what Lindsay eats or doesn’t eat.”

That’s what Lindsay Lohan’s rep told People, denying rumors she’s on a liquid diet based on frequent Red Bulls.

I, however, believe it is my business to point out that everybody is singular, but their is plural. Lindsay’s rep should have said, “Everybody needs to mind her own business.”

While we’re on the subject, let’s review other singular pronouns that trip up overpaid celebrity reps.

* the ones - one, everyone, someone, anyone, no one

* the things - everything, something, anything, nothing

* the bodies - everybody, somebody, anybody, nobody

Whether or not is sounds right, these pronouns require singular treatment. So does Lindsay.