While Congress and the president prepare to do battle over Iraq, the war is not the only issue on the table. In the mad sprint between Labor Day and Columbus Day, both chambers have a lot on their plate, much of which will cause headaches and little of which will be widely agreed upon.

In the Senate, Democrats kick off the long road to October today with the Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs Appropriations bill and will vote on confirmation for new Office of Management and Budget chief Jim Nussle. Defense, Foreign Operations and Transportation Appropriations bills remain, as well as a continuing resolution to keep the government functioning through the end of the fiscal year.

The House spends this week on a major overhaul of the patent system, election reform and Native American housing and begins their long schedule of hearings on Iraq.

Voting rights for Washington, DC, a vote to override President Bush's veto of stem cell legislation and conference reports on energy, education, higher education and the Children's Health Insurance Program will also make their way through both chambers. Like the last two weeks of session in July, the pace will be nothing short of break-neck.

On the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the first steps of the legacy of George W. Bush are under construction. Fellow Texan Robert Draper, a freelancer who's written for GQ and many other papers, convinced Bush to sit for six hour-long interviews which, along with interviews with other top White House aides, he compiled into "Dead Certain," a book released today.

The tome was teased over the weekend in the New York Times and the Washington Post (and at Salon today), and we get several peeks at a White House renowned for its secrecy, some of which Bush denies or can't recall happening.

Among the bombshells: The Post reveals that former top White House aide Karl Rove (whose last day was Friday) told President Bush that it was a mistake to name Dick Cheney the GOP's vice presidential nominee, and that Rove raised objections to nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court (someone else looking to buff his own legacy?).

In fact, writes Draper, it was none other than now-Chief Justice John Roberts who suggested Miers for the post, and that while she originally did not want the job, Bush and his wife convinced her to take the nomination. Roberts denied the assertion through a Supreme Court spokeswoman over the weekend.

According to another anecdote, Bush took a show-of-hands vote on whether former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should be forced out, in April of 2006. The vote was 7-4 in favor of removal, reports Draper, though Bush was one of the no votes. Rumsfeld quit the day after the 2006 midterm elections, a move that did not sit well with many Republicans. Bush, for his part, says he doesn't remember the vote.

Articles in recent months have pointed to Bush as obsessed with his place in history. It seems, though, that he's convinced his legacy ends when he leaves the Oval Office. Unlike former Presidents Bush, Clinton and Carter, the current President Bush says he will spend his time between Crawford and Dallas, and, recalling running into Clinton at the U.N., "six years from now you're not going to see me hanging out in the lobby of the U.N.," he says.

Jonathan Martin has his own favorite takeaways, and we'll bring you ours as soon as we find a bookstore that hasn't sold out.

Finally today, a brief note on President Bush's big stop in Iraq yesterday. The pool report, wherein one or two reporters write on details of meetings that the entire press corps can then use in order to cut down on crowding, often gives close-up looks at the operations of Washington that are left out of stories. For some, like this reporter, pool reports are endlessly fascinating.

Reporters, according to the pool, were told to tell just one editor before they left Washington for al Anbar province, on Sunday night. Bush drove down Washington streets without his usual motorcade so as not to attract attention (see the pre-trip pool report here).

Meanwhile, Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post wrote the pool report as Air Force One, shrouded in darkness, lifted off from Al-Asad Air Base, some of which Mike Allen includes in today's Politico Playbook. The image of Air Force One taking off in darkness is striking.

At least one reporter wasn't surprised by the president's visit to Iraq. The L.A. Times' Andrew Malcolm, who used to serve in the First Lady's office, writes today that Laura Bush is too tough to be sidelined from a foreign visit by a pinched nerve, the excuse given to the White House press corps a few weeks ago. Instead, he suggests, the move was meant to shield the First Lady from any danger.