The White House backed off. But senior military sources say that after the November election debacle, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta persuaded Defense Secretary William Perry to trim the DOD’s closure plans in key states. The sources say the navy wanted to shut the Portsmouth, N.H., shipyard, but in a January radio interview Clinton assured state residents that it would be spared. The air force plans to close at least two of its five maintenance depots in California and Texas have also been scotched, the sources say.
