MSNBC host Ed Schultz told Thomas Roberts on Thursday that he thinks it would be a good thing for Democrats if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker retained his seat in an upcoming June 5 recall. Schultz also claims that Wisconsin’s voters could be turning out to retain a “criminal” in the governor’s mansion.

Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) appeared on MSNBC with anchor Thomas Roberts on Tuesday to address the findings in a shocking new CBS/New York Times poll released on Monday night which showed two-thirds of voters believe President Barack Obama decided to back gay marriage as a matter of politics not policy. Wasserman Schultz told Roberts that the poll indicates how far Americans have come in accepting gay rights, and said that Obama believes in gay marriage rights. “This is the civil rights issue of our generation, said Wasserman Schultz.

On Monday, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts hosted a panel debate over the impact of Obama’s recent rhetorical embrace of gay marriage on the electorate with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s campaign advisor Hogan Gidley and Democratic strategist David Goodfriend. Goodfriend chided Gidley and the GOP for shunning traditional Democratic voting blocs, saying that they should own large percentages of minority as well as gay and lesbian voters. He’s right. The GOP should take a page from the Democratic party’s playbook and take a risk with the base knowing that they always come home in the fall.

Evan Wolfson, Director of Freedom To Marry, appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday with Thomas Roberts to discuss Tuesday’s passage of a state constitutional amendment in North Carolina that defines marriage as existing only between a man and a woman. Wolfson told Roberts that he believes gay marriage is widely supported and a political winner for President Barack Obama who needs to back same-sex marriage rights. Wolfson cites polls accurately, but not ballot results. The facts are that same-sex marriage ballot measures have a solidly losing track record.

Democratic Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday where she said that Democrats opposed making cuts in programs like food stamps and the 2010 health care reform law in order to pay for programs that President Obama is proposing. Bass said that such cuts would be counterproductive in the long run because programs like food stamps creates “money that goes directly to small business” and stimulates the economy. Bass also said that the Republican compromise on freezing student loan rates amounts to asking students to either accept doubling rates or “forego your cancer screenings.”

The NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, a series which, in following the current NBC model, is better than anything on other networks but still watched by no one because it’s on NBC, is currently wrapping up a hiatus. However, Ron Swanson himself, Nick Offerman popped up on TV anyway today, lending his unmistakable voice to the fight for marriage equality. Recently, he and his wife Megan Mullally have taken time off from presumably working to create some kind of comedic super-baby (as well as acting and stuff) and filmed a PSA for the Human Rights Campaign. Offerman discussed it over on MSNBC (synergy!).

It has been a fateful year for the cable news network MSNBC. It seems every month, another host – or even the network itself – is forced to apologize for reporting a factual error or overstepping the bounds of responsible commentary.

On Thomas Roberts‘ MSNBC program, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus engaged in a heated debate over the existence of the “war on women.” After arguing that there is no such thing as the war on women, Priebus turned on Roberts, saying “The most important issue is the economy. It’s the issue that you and Barack Obama don’t want to talk about.”

On Wednesday’s MSNBC Live, anchor Thomas Roberts reported that Apple and Microsoft were “marrying up, asking the National Organization for Marriage, and its supporters, to boycott their companies” in response to a leaked NOM memo that detailed a strategy to divide gay people and black people.

The leaked memo was real; the boycott request was not. An unamused Roberts apologized on air today, noting that the item was based on a Huffington Post satire piece.

On Friday, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts (finally) spoke with Maggie Gallagher, the former president and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. You might recall that there had been a “mix-up,” as Roberts explained, with Gallagher’s earlier booking on the show, prompting Roberts to O’Donnellinate (that’s industry speak for interrogating furniture).

MSNBC has evidently embraced a new gimmick, first performed by Lawrence O’Donnell on a March 26 show in which a lawyer for George Zimmerman failed to appear, where the host angrily interrogates an empty chair. That particular segment, while perhaps a bit heavy on the sanctimony, was great television – to the point that MSNBC afternoon host Thomas Roberts decided to emulate it on Wednesday. However, it has since been revealed that Roberts’ guest did not cancel last minute, as Zimmerman’s lawyer had, but the guest was simply improperly booked.

David Pollock, endearingly known to movie fans as “Rudi Stein” from The Bad News Bears, announced in August that he was running for Congress as a Democrat in California’s 26th District. On Friday, he stopped by MSNBC for an interview with Thomas Roberts.

If you want to see perfect proof of just how divided our country is (and you don’t want proof that will make you want to vomit), look no further than the first 30 seconds of this segment between MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts and RNC Chair Reince Priebus. It basically went like this; Roberts played a clip of Mitt Romney discussing how President Obama is ruining America.

Sharon Bialek spoke with MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts Wednesday about reports in the Chicago Sun-Times that witnesses saw her hugging Herman Cain. “Let me clarify, there were was no hugging involved, there was an arm-elbow,” Bialek claimed. “I simply grasped his elbow and leaned in towards him, and said a few words to him to acknowledge that he knew exactly who I was, and I will not share right now what I said to him.”

Earlier this morning on MSNBC, Herman Cain accuser Sharon Bialek and attorney Gloria Allred told anchor Thomas Roberts that they were open to the idea of a joint press conference with other Cain accusers. Now, Time Magazine is reporting that Joel Bennett, attorney for recently-outed Cain accuser Karen Kraushaar, has been in contact with Allred, and says that such a press conference “is a certainty. Date and time to be determined.”

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, like many watching last Thursday’s debate, was fairly uncomfortable with the way the Republican crowd greeted an openly gay soldier serving abroad: with boos. But in expressing his disgust to guest Chris Hayes on his program Friday, he went further than to critique the crowd’s homophobia, claiming Republicans wanted to “build a time machine” to were “no women voted” and “slavery was cool.”

It’s been frustrating for many in the media and the American people to sit back and watch the markets go crazy since America’s credit downgrade on Friday, while some of the few people who can react to situation are on vacation. Case in point: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, who in speaking with guest Ezra Klein today suggested that future Congressional inaction in light of the dire situation may be considered “an act of treason.”

The gay conservative group GOProud caused a bit of a stir last week by inviting Rep. Michele Bachmann to meet with them, as her campaign struggled with allegations that her husband’s clinic practiced gay reparative therapy. The group’s Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia explained the invite to MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, who incredulously argued that, in hypothetically voting for Rep. Bachmann, LaSalvia would vote to replace President Obama “with a person that would extinguish you.”

As the budget talks continue in Congress, Democrats and Republicans resume negotiations on whether increasing taxes or cutting spending (or what combination of both) would work best. But progress is slow, and on The Last Word yesterday, Van Jones blamed “a very small number of extremists” on the right who refuse to raise taxes, even when Ronald Reagan would.

This afternoon, MSNBC interviewed Graham Sharp, the creator and CEO of Xtranormal, a site that allows users to create short, pithy animated videos using their own text. (Chances are you’ve been emailed at least one Xtranormal video lately. Here’s my personal favorite.) CNN anchor Thomas Roberts, for one, finds these videos to be quite hilarious.

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts got his Christmas gift early–a new, full-time contract with MSNBC. Roberts, who’d been freelancing since April, filling in on various shows–notably for Keith Olbermann during the Countdown anchor’s short suspension–earned good reviews and a desire among MSNBC execs to lock him in before someone snatched him away, even though they didn’t have a show–yet–for him to host. “All I wanted for Christmas was to get my contract done and signed,” Roberts told Mediaite.

MSNBC news anchor Thomas Roberts will fill in for Keith Olbermann tonight on Countdown, according to the Twitter feed of Brian Stelter.

Roberts filled in today for MSNBC at NoonET and 3pmET, and regularly hosts hours during the day. This will be his first shot at prime time.

The Advocate announced today that it was beginning an “online and on air” daily news program through a deal with NBC News Channel, which will provide network and affiliate content. The deal with NBC means that Here Media’s namesake–premium television channel the here! Network– will start having a daily or weekly news show in 2010 or 2011, Stephen F. Macias, Here Network’s general manager and executive vice president told Mediaite.