I DON'T WANT to suggest Lynn Swann is desperate.

Wait a second, yes I do.

A Swann fundraising letter making the rounds over the signature of state Republican Committee Chairman Robert A. Gleason says so.

It trashes Gov. Rendell, includes a FIRE ED bumper sticker and asks for $200 - all on the basis of assertions showing high-level desperation.

Look, I understand Swann's a rookie against a veteran and needs to, you know, get out there.

And I know fundraising letters tend to be out there.

But this one's waaaaay out there.

It says, for example, the $200 is "worth it to rid the Commonwealth of a governor who stands for most everything you and I abhor."

What? Pestilence? War? Underarm rashes?

I ask Gleason just what he means.

"Well, our base is conservative," he explains, adding, "Ed's budgets continue to grow by leaps and bounds."

I see.

Those would be the budgets passed by the Republican Legislature after adding more spending?

Then the letter (laughably) claims, "Right now Lynn Swann is neck-and-neck" with Rendell in polls, and says momentum is "on OUR SIDE."

These must be polls conducted among members of Swann's immediate family. And momentum?

Well, in May, a Keystone Poll had Ed up 14 points; in June, a Quinnipiac Poll said the same; in July a Strategic Vision Poll put Ed's lead at 13; and an Allentown Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll released yesterday has Ed up 16.

Mr. Gleason?

"I guess we were referring to that first poll when Swann was ahead," he says.

Ah, the good old days. The days before Rendell went on TV, before Swann showed he can't raise money, the days when there was a spark of interest in the Swann candidacy.

And what is there now?

You tell me.

The letter calls Rendell "America's worst tax-and-spend governor." It notes the Cato Institute gives him an "F."

Well, Cato leans to the ideological right. The letter, it turns out, refers to a 2004 report. Three of the four governors getting "F"s are Democrats (Rendell, former Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey and former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden) and the lone Republican, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, is a lame-duck convict.

Wait, there's more.

Cato's director of budget studies, Stephen Slivinski, who wrote the '04 report on governors, tells me Rendell's grade was only a "mid-term" grade and says Rendell has "lately been doing the kinds of things we like governors to do," such as proposing tax cuts.

The letter also says because of Rendell's "bad judgment and chronic failures" Pennsylvania ranks 45th in providing incentives to create jobs.

The source, I'm told, is a 2004 finding of the U.S. Economic Freedom Index by the Pacific Research Institute. Fine. But what the letter doesn't say is Pennsylvania also ranked 45th in the same index in 1999 when Republican Gov. Tom Ridge was in office.

And finally the letter says "under Governor Rendell" Pennsylvania is one of the top states in education spending but near the bottom in test scores.

Please. Pick a year, any year. Pick a governor, any governor.

Look, Rendell's far from perfect. He was wrong on the pay raise, gambling's a mess and there are legitimate questions about his approach to economic development.

But Swann's campaign to unseat him isn't served by desperate reaches.

And that's what this is.

The letter has a P.S. saying how important it is to give to Swann because Rendell's "bare-knuckled brawlers will run roughshod over the truth."

Really? Seems to me they'd be too late.

Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com. For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/baer.