Tailgunner Roger

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint likes to invoke the memory of the union's late leader, Michael J. Quill, to cast himself in his mold as a militant trade-unionist.

In his continuing purge of critics from elected positions or the ballots for union office, however, Mr. Toussaint is summoning memories of another firebrand of a distinctly different stripe: Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

During the early 1950s, Tailgunner Joe used thin and often dubious evidence to smear numerous government and union officials, actors, writers and academics as Communists.

Mr. Toussaint has resorted to a similar ploy to keep his in-house critics from holding union positions. The most recent case occurred last week, when one of his emissaries went to a shop in Brooklyn's East New York section to announce that the election of Randy Palmenta to a shop steward's post was invalid because, among other reasons, Mr. Palmenta had signed a letter that put conditions on paying dues.

The letter at issue is the same one Mr. Toussaint has used as a pretext for denying positions or release time to several other internal critics. It actually emphasizes to Local 100 members the importance of paying their dues, but then adds that they have a right to know that their money is being spent responsibly by the union's leadership.

That could fairly be called a gratuitous shot at Mr. Toussaint. It is hardly out of bounds when it comes to union politics, however, and it could not reasonably be interpreted as telling members that they shouldn't pay their dues unless Mr. Toussaint produces a thorough accounting of the union's spending.

But the Local 100 leader tends to be easily offended, and he has indulged his pique by using the letter to try to disqualify its signers from holding union office. This is out of bounds when it comes to politics - at least if you're running what is supposed to be a democratic union where the will of the rank and file counts for something.

Eventually Senator McCarthy was exposed as a hypocrite and a charlatan and left office in disgrace. Mr. Toussaint should consider whether he is courting the same fate, and - more importantly - whether his conduct doesn't violate many of the principles that led him to seek office, prior to the point when preserving his own power became his guiding imperative.