The MSNBC host will be joining House Democrats on a retreat in Cambridge, Maryland on Wednesday, according to the Roll Call. The focus of the retreat, which has the theme “Reignite the American Dream,” will be honing the group’s message about jobs and the economy going into the 2012 election.

Schultz will speak on a panel about Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s “Make it in America” plan. The retreat’s other discussions will largely focus on core policy issues, and also feature Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. speaking on the “History of the Democratic Party: the Struggle for Rights.”

The half-hour show will see an initial run of 10 once-weekly episodes, beginning in March.

“Assange will draw together controversial voices from across the political spectrum — iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders — each to offer a window on the world tomorrow and their ideas on how to secure a brighter future,” a media advisory explained.

“Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it,” Assange said in the advisory. “Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths? This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before.”

The series was being produced by Quick Roll Productions, which was still in the process of examining licensing inquiries for the show.

Schieffer: Mr. Speaker, I’ve got a proposal for you. We’re going to be in Miami next week broadcasting Face the Nation, a special one hour edition. If I could get Mitt Romney to come sit down at the table with us would you come on and debate him for the full hour, just the two of you?

Gingrich: Well listen, I have to consult with R.C. Hammond, as you know, but I will tell you I personally would like to do that. I have a hunch that if you can get Governor Romney to agree to the three of us to sit down next Sunday, it would be perfect and I suspect we’d be happy to come and do it.

Schieffer: Alright, well we’ll look for you then and I’ll call him up right now. Thanks very much and congratulations.

Hayes spoke to Boumediene via satellite and through an Arabic translator; Boumediene now lives in the south of France with his family. Before the interview, he played footage of President Obama saying he was going to close the Guantanamo prison. He called the tape “very hard to watch right now,” since the prison remains indefinitely open, and since Obama has expressed his support for detaining people without trial there.

Boumediene told Hayes that, when he was captured, he assumed it was all a mistake.

“I thought that America was a great country,” he said. “That there was justice and freedom. And…that they would realize i am innocent and they would let me go home to my family. But it was totally to the contrary.” He said he was told by one of his interrogators some years into his detention that his case was a purely political one that had nothing to do with terrorism.

Boumediene eventually went on a hunger strike inside the prison. He told Hayes that, though his captors knew that there was a permanent blockage in his left sinus, they would jam his feeding tube into that nostril “for five to ten minutes” until they hit bone.

He also discussed the toll his detention has taken on him, even after his release.

“I don’t have anything,” he said. “I lost all my life. I go and try to find a job. They ask me, between 2002 and 2009, what did you do? And this is where the shock is. The interviewer hears the word ‘Guantanamo’ and they freak out.”

Harris-Perry tweeted the news on Thursday, and wrote that her new show will follow Chris Hayes’ weekend program, “Up With Chris.” The new show, which does not yet have a title, will air on Saturday and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The show will debut on Saturday, February 4.

Harris-Perry has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, with appearances on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Al Sharpton’s “PoliticsNation,” and “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell.” Harris-Perry has filled in for hosts Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell.

Harris-Perry’s ascension is also notable in an industry often derided for its lack of diversity. She is now one of two black women, and three black hosts anchoring programs on MSNBC.

The addition of Harris-Perry’s show also marks an increase in the cable news additional scheduling changes for the network’s weekend programming. “Up With Chris,” which previously aired at different times on Saturdays and Sundays, will now air on both days from 8-10:00 a.m. MSNBC weekend anchor Alex Witt will expand her live news coverage on Saturdays and Sundays. “Weekends with Alex Witt” will air from 7-8:00 a.m. on Saturdays, and 12-2:00 pm. on both Saturdays and Sundays.

“We asked Keith to be the sole anchor and exec producer of our primary and caucus coverage beginning tonight. Unfortunately, he declined to anchor or participate.”

Earlier Tuesday, Olbermann indicated that his show “Countdown” was returning, but by 7 p.m. ET, he said it was not to be.

“So as not to mislead: I am informed Countdown will not be on tonight,” Olbermann tweeted. “I must defer on all questions to @JoelHyatt @AlGore and @Current.”

Instead, Gore was on air alongside his two other prime time hosts, Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm. Current’s Chief News Officer and on-air visage was MIA.

These mixed signals come amid reports of tension between Olbermann, who has fought his way off networks before, and Current.

As the New York Times’ Brian Stelter wrote last Thursday, Olbermann’s involvement in the election so far – or lack thereof – is puzzling. He did not appear in a pair of special reports that followed GOP candidate debates.

“These absences suggest that there may be new tension between Mr. Olbermann and the managers at Current, who are trying to create a progressive-oriented cable news channel,” Stelter wrote.

Pressured by Chris Matthews to explain if his candidate had any conversations on ads with the Super PACs endorsing him, attorney Ben Ginsberg provided a strong, yet dubious, opinion of the former Massachusetts Governor.

“Ben, you’re saying that’s he’s wrong, that he’s wrong to tell the Super PAC to cool it?” Matthews asked.

“No, my candidate is never wrong,” Ginsberg replied. “You’re mixing apples and oranges in which you’re trying to get me to say.”

Romney earlier said that he helped the Super PACs raise money, but carefully noted that “the law says I can’t tell them what ads to run or when to run them or where to run them.

“It’s a bizarre thing to bring up.” Bachmann countered. “Today is the election, what people recognize is that the most important issue that people will be looking at is, ‘Who is the best person to deal with the economy?’ Probably someone who’s created the a business from scratch. I came from a family where I was below poverty. I had to earn my way up out of poverty.”

“What you’re telling me is you don’t want to discuss social issues because you want to talk about the economy? I don’t think it’s a bizarre question. I think it’s a fair question,” O’Brien replied.

The network’s news president, Ben Sherwood, said Friday that Jon Banner will replace Rick Kaplan as the show’s executive producer. Banner was a longtime producer of “World News” before taking on a wider role recently at ABC News.

Sherwood says Kaplan will produce ABC’s New Hampshire primary and offer a “critical voice” in news and election coverage later.

Hayes points out that Gingrich enabled the same kind of “voter fraud,” or, as it’s called when white people do it, “a mistake.”

On Wednesday, Gingrich said that the reason he didn’t qualify for the Virginia ballot was that 1,500 of the 11,100 signatures his campaign turned in were fraudulent, leaving him short of the 10,000 needed.

As Hayes points out, Gingrich was a vocal critic of the now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), whom he (falsely) accused the group of “adding such notables as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to the voter rolls,” and even compared with Hamas.

Sandusky, who has been charged with over 50 counts of serial sexual abuse against minors, was first interviewed over the phone by NBC’s Bob Costas. Costas had originally booked an interview with Sandusky’s lawyer, Joe Amendola, on Brian Williams’ new prime time newsmagazine show, “Rock Center With Brian Williams.” Just before the interview, Amendola reportedly asked Costas if he would like Sandusky to join by phone.

According to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Amendola reportedly told The New York Times that Sandusky and his wife were considering sitting down for an interview together in early 2012. Amendola said that the Sanduskys were considering returning to NBC’s “Rock Center,” sitting down with Oprah, talking with ABC’s Barbara Walters, or appearing on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Maddow was referring to what she called the “Murdoch primary,” which she described as Fox News ability to fall “ostentatiously in and out of love” with each non-Mitt Romney candidate that has surged in the polls. Maddow went through what she believed was the list of Fox News’ previous media darlings.

According to Maddow, Fox News “loved the idea of a Donald Trump candidacy…the prospect of Texas Governor Rick Perry entering the race…and loved the idea of Herman Cain.” Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, Maddow said, are less admired by the network. Maddow said that Gingrich’s “wobbly” surge in the polls can be attributed to the fact that Fox News “has never seemed to like [him] much.”