According to the Hill, Senator Joe Lieberman, one of the few independents in the United States Senate and former Democrat with an independent mind, may lose his chairmanship.

Sources told the Hill that Democratic leaders want to oust Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. If all goes to plan Lieberman will be replaced by the third ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (Hawaii).

Lieberman spokesman Marshall Witman responded to the rumors saying his boss “is focused on doing all he can to elect John McCain as president rather than post-election Washington politics.”

Another source told the Hill that the Democrats would not make Lieberman lose his position in the Democratic caucus, because they may need his vote in the coming years. “There’s no sense in cutting off our nose to spite our face,” the source said.

Other planned reshuffles are: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) taking over the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) taking over the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) moving to the helm of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

The move to force Lieberman to step down and to replace him with a true Democrat is likely to rile up the liberal base, which is aggressively anti-Lieberman, but moderates and independents may have objections. Lieberman is generally considered to be an expert on the issue of homeland security, and he is quite popular among independents for his refusal to give in to the liberal base who tried to defeat him in 2006; an election Lieberman won, by beating the Democratic nominee for his senate seat as an Independent (Democrat).