McCain: Marine son is home from Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who almost always avoids speaking on the campaign trail about his son serving in the Marines, got a rousing response Wednesday when he told a private gathering of House Republicans that his son Jimmy - whose unit had been deployed to Iraq - had arrived home from safely.

According to three sources present at the closed meeting of the House Republican Conference, the Arizona senator said that when his son first arrived in the country, he reported seeing roadside bombs everywhere - but by the time he left some seven months later, Iraq had become safe enough for him to hand out soccer balls to Iraqi children.

According to the sources present, the caucus members greeted the news with a standing ovation.

– From CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh