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WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — President Barack Obama will take part in a memorial service for former House Speaker Tom Foley next Tuesday at the Capitol building.

Foley was a 30-year veteran of the House who died last Friday at the age of 84.

Obama praised him as a “legend of the United States Congress” whose straightforward approach helped find common ground with both Republicans and his fellow Democrats.

The Washington state lawmaker served as speaker from 1989 to 1995. He was ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton.

Happy Friday:

You have a damning  tape, I have a damning  tape: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seized on comments the Democratic president made this week about his inability these last four years to change the tone of politics in Washington, D.C.   President Obama told a TV audience it is difficult to change things from the inside; such a move is more likely to take place from the outside. Romney responded quickly, saying he would be happy to help Obama change Washington  – from the outside. Romney called the statement an admission of the president’s inability to bring change, which, of course, was half of the Obama 2008 bumper sticker/slogan.

Here is the videotape of Obama:

The two videotapes are obviously quite different. The Romney tape released earlier in the week about 47 percent of Americans dependent on government consumed newscasts for days. But the rapid volley-and-return  reflects the heightened testiness of the campaign.

So many new ads: A new ad for the yes-on-gay-marriage campaign, that is, for approving Referendum 74, features a poignant plea for marriage equality from the would-be mother-in-law of ailing former Seattle City Councilmember Cheryl Chow. Would-be, that is, if the referendum is approved and Chow is allowed, under Washington law, to marry her partner, Sarah Morningstar. Chow, who was on the Council for many years, is now suffering from brain cancer. She was honored by her colleagues the other day at City Hall.

Here is the ad.

The ad raises questions about whether Chow’s partner would be able to visit her in the hospital under the state’s existing domestic partnership law. State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the chief sponsor of the state’s gay-marriage legislation, explained that the problem with domestic partnerships is they are not easily understood. “That is not how we define families, that’s not how people recognize a family.  It (domestic partnership) was always an imperfect instrument.”

The reject-Referendum 74 forces have been comparatively quiet, but the Seattle PI says they have reserved significant TV time for this fall.

Republican secretaries of state: If observers of state politics sometimes lament the notion that Democrats have been in power a long time, guess which statewide office has pretty much been owned by Republicans the last half century? Secretary of State.  Mike Flynn, the longtime editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal, notes in his blog, Flynn’s Harp, that Republicans have held that position for nearly 50 years, since 1964, when a young Seattle  City Councilman, Lud Kramer, took over the job. Republicans have held the job ever since.

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President Obama has had a few positive weeks, including a convention that came off without many noticeable glitches, at least as far as voters in Washington state seem to think.

The latest KING-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA shows Democrat Obama now leading Republican Mitt Romney by a whopping 16 points in research conducted Sept. 7 to 9, among 524 likely Washington voters.  That’s getting close to Obama’s 2008 final tally in Washington. Obama-Joe Biden beat John McCain and Sarah Palin by 17 points.

The latest poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Pundits talk a lot about a bounce, a jump in polls following a convention. Obama seems to have gotten one nationally: CNN says the president now leads Romney by 6 points.

Polls, as always, capture a moment in time. Keep in mind there are still 57 days to go until Election Day and many millions of dollars of advertising on behalf of both presidential tickets and a few debates sprinkled into the mix.

Good Morning.

Something  funny, as in, odd, is happening with presidential campaign ads that feature the candidates breaking into song.  Earlier this week, Team Obama released a powerful ad against Republican Mitt Romney that takes Romney’s singing of “America the Beautiful” and overlays it with mentions of his activities overseas that have not benefited working Americans.

Take a look.

Then, the Romney campaign returned volley with an ad featuring Obama singing Al Green’s song, “Let’s Stay Together,” similarly laced with accusations about Obama favoring his contributors over the middle class. I would show you that ad, but a music publishing company has withdrawn it from Youtube.com  for copyright reasons. The Romney camp wants to put the ad back up, arguing that its use is entirely proper.

The Al Green song, the argument goes, is copyrighted; America the Beautiful was published in the 1920s and so is in the public domain.

Well, we have been talking about this for some time. Today, Wednesday, is the day ballots start going out. Drop boxes open Thursday. This election is upon us.

Big bucks are flowing in the 6th Congressional District contest, the battle to replace longtime Congressman Norm Dicks.

News media are suckers for creative or out-of-the-box campaign events, and King County Sheriff Steve Strachan has one. “Shoot’n with Sheriff Steve Strachan” is a fundraiser scheduled for Friday. Publicola.com  has a picture of the flier.

Brief note:  If you search for “shooting” and “with the sheriff,” you will find other sheriffs or sheriff candidates have had similar events., including a recent one in Brevard County, Fla.,   and this one in Texas.

Please join Politics Northwest for a live chat Thursday, July 19, at 12:15 p.m on the proposed basketball and hockey arena. With us, answering your questions, will be Chris Hansen, the San Francisco businessman seeking to build the new arena. Also on hand, answering questions about traffic and transportation concerns in the Sodo neighborhood, will be Dave Gering, executive director of the Manufacturing Industrial Council of Seattle. If you want to offer a question, send an email to lthompson@seattletimes.com or jbalter@seattletimes.com and we will try to include it.