"Piers Morgan Live, Rewind": Callista explains it all, Frank Rich on John Boehner, and John McCain on Obamacare

Whether you fell asleep early, stayed out too late, or simply want to watch it again, we realize it's not always possible to get your entire "Piers Morgan Live" fix from television. As an answer to this, we offer the below labor of love – "Piers Morgan Live, Rewind" – dedicated and designed to getting you caught up and connected to the conversation.

• Is "Ellis the Elephant" based on Newt Gingrich? Callista Explains It All

On Monday evening, Piers Morgan welcomed Newt and Callista Gingrich to join him in studio for a live, primetime interview.

In addition to discussing politics, the trio also talked publications, as the wife of the former Speaker of the House recently penned another children's book, entitled "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

In it, Callista's title character "Ellis the Elephant" is used as a vehicle to teach "kids about the greatness of America," the author revealed.

But the question remains: is Ellis loosely based on Newt, a man who had previously admitted to Morgan that elephants are his favorite animal?

"Well, no actually. I knew I needed an interesting character to capture the attention of children. And I really did consider many animals including monkeys and hippos and giraffes," said the 47-year-old President of Gingrich Productions. "In the end, I couldn't resist this adorable little elephant, Ellis the Elephant."

• Frank Rich on John Boehner: "He's not playing with a full deck"

As the nation moved into a second consecutive week set atop the backdrop of the government shutdown, on Wednesday evening Piers Morgan asked "New York" magazine essayist Frank Rich to share his analysis.

"The truth is, particularly in [John] Boehner's case, he's not playing with a full deck. He does not have control of his caucus. And by the way, sometimes [Newt] Gingrich didn't either in the previous version of this. And while I know that Mr. Gingrich now waxes sort of sentimentally about Bill Clinton, the truth is, they were at each other's throats too," he explained, referencing a political standstill from administration's past. "There's a lot of re-writing of history there. But in the end, I think [President Barack] Obama really does have his party behind him. Even senators in red states up for re-election, Democratic senators, that the Republicans thought they could peel away in this escapade are remaining loyal to the president, whereas Boehner is dealing with kindergarten and kindergarten cops and every variation on that kind of chaos."

• John McCain on Obamacare and the Government Shutdown

With the government shutdown continuing to divide, polarize, and enrage the country, on Wednesday night "Piers Morgan Live" invited John McCain to offer his perspective.

"I do believe that we may reach a point where the markets have to tell us to come to an agreement and that would be of course when we start defaulting on our debts," said the former Republican presidential candidate. "I hope that that's not the case because I think the markets will react, and that'll obviously be bad for almost all Americans who have stocks in the stock market, but right now, one of the problems is it's no longer Republican versus Democrat, sit down and negotiate. There's the third element here, as you know, and that is a significant number in the House of Representatives who believe that we should have no negotiations until there's an agreement to defund Obamacare, which is not going to happen until we have 67 Republican senate votes that would override a presidential veto."

Watch the clip for more of McCain's analysis and suggestions regarding the government shutdown, and for the next edition of "Piers Morgan Live," watch CNN every night at 9.
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