Enraging fellow council members, two New York's Queens Republicans yesterday called for an amendment that would designate English as the country's official language. Asking the council to do what Congress resisted, Councilmen Thomas Ognibene of Middle Village and Al Stabile of Ozone Park said the amendment is needed to create "a truly unified nation." The amendment was immediately attacked and rejected by council members, who likened Ognibene to the television character Archie Bunker and called him everything from wrongheaded to anti-immigrant. In addition, Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) insisted that the resolution will never pass. "This resolution is DOA," Vallone said. "It has already died once in this council, and I can assure you it will die again." It was unclear what, if any, practical effect the resolution would have had, although about two dozen states have enacted such bills in recent years. Ognibene insisted it would force immigrants to learn English, and perhaps curtail bilingual education programs in the city's public schools. "I am simply saying if we are going to have a society where people can grow and learn and assimilate, you have to have a common language ability to communicate," he said. The debate turned the council's sleepy staid meeting into a battleground, and Ognibene was repeatedly asked to withdraw the resolution. "Why do you need to open these wounds?" asked Councilman Guillermo Linares (D-Manhattan), who called the proposal "disgraceful and shameful . . . it is a total disrespect to all who acknowledge and embrace the richness and greatness of our language diversity." Councilwoman Helen Marshall (D-Elmhurst) said the thousands of new immigrants who live in her district are extremely anxious to learn English. "I cannot get enough classes . . . we are trying every nook and cranny," she said, describing efforts to get more classroom space for new immigrants. She called Ognibene's resolution "extremely punitive and contrary to everything the city stands for." Ognibene shrugged off the criticism, and said any new immigrants who resist it "are insecure and take it as an insult, when it simply isn't so. Their lack of success . . . is a failure to learn the language."