GOP Senator Conrad Burns is claiming that President Bush has a plan for Iraq but that he isn't willing to reveal it. The Billings-Gazette reports today that Burns made the remark at a debate with Dem challenger Jon Tester yesterday. The paper says that Burns said of Tester (emphasis added): “He says our president don’t have a plan. I think he’s got one. He’s not going to tell everyone in the world." And when Tester observed that there was no plan, Burns replied: "We’re not going to tell you what our plan is, Jon, because you’re just going to go out and blow it." More after the jump.

From the Billings Gazette:

For nearly a year, Tester has called on Bush to develop a plan to remove U.S. troops from Iraq. Burns has criticized Tester’s position as “cut and run.”

“We’re in a quagmire over there,” Tester said.

Burns told Tester firmly not to put him in the Democrat’s camp on the issue.

“I said we’ve got to win,” Burns said. “He wants us to pull out. He wants everyone to know our plan. That’s not smart.

“He says our president don’t have a plan. I think he’s got one. He’s not going to tell everyone in the world.”

Many in the crowd, which was dominated by Tester supporters, openly laughed at Burns’ claim that Bush has a plan.

Tester said Bush’s only plan is staying the course in Iraq at considerable sacrifices to U.S. troops and the federal treasury.

“We went in under false pretenses,” Tester said. “We pulled the troops from Afghanistan and put them in Iraq. Osama bin Laden is still running free.”

The war is costing the U.S. billions of dollars a year that could be better spent on helping middle-class families and small businesses, the challenger said.

Tester said he is not for “telling our opponents what we’re going to do. The fact is, we don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Replied Burns: “We’re not going to tell you what our plan is, Jon, because you’re just going to go out and blow it.”

Immediately following the debate, Tester campaign spokesman Matt McKenna likened Burns’ claim of a Bush plan to President Nixon’s secret plan in 1972 to end the war in Vietnam.

According to Robert Novak, GOP strategists "do not expect to save" Burns.