I cannot believe that Mary Matalin would advise to do what Obama wants. I even doubt that the detestable Karl Rove would give that advice. He is not stupid.
I believe that both Matalin and Rove would wisely counsel the Republicans to graciously appear to cooperate and stall, stall, stall for 11 months.
Then I would say that you haven't paid attention to what those two and their GOPe buddies have been up to since the Reagan years. Matalin is a long-time Bush family adviser and is married to the enemy. She talks a good game in the media, but ultimately goes with the GOPe herd.
Rove is a complete imbecile and destructive force. He's the leader of the crowd always telling Republicans that the voters don't like when they're mean or divisive or racist. Those would be the same voters who seem to like when the Democrats do it, however. And don't forget it was Rove in 2010 who took out three Republican Senate candidates in a daily barrage of criticism in the media after they had the party's nomination in the general election. They were Sharon Angle in Nevada, Joe Miller in Alaska, and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.