Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has promised to govern from the middle next year, but her new House leadership team is shaping up to be more liberal than her old one.

The departure of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), coupled with left-leaning additions to the leadership lineup, is causing angst among Democratic centrists and conservatives.

But despite the additional centrist Democrats, the caucus may move to the left because many committee chairmen and members of leadership are liberal.

It is unclear if this was an orchestrated move by Pelosi to consolidate power among a trusted group of advisers or simply a function of a significant number of Democrats not wanting to begin the Obama era with intra-party squabbles.

But members of the caucus have already taken notice. And in the absence of a last-minute shake-up of the leadership races — which are growing less contentious by the day — a slate of largely liberal members is set to move up the leadership ladder.

Following the elections last week, Pelosi said Democrats need to “govern from the middle” and work on a bipartisan basis to accomplish their ambitious agenda.

Barring a last-minute change, the only centrist in House leadership will be Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a longtime friend to the conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

The shift began with the sudden departure of Emanuel, who declined a certain reelection to his leadership post to become White House chief of staff.

Emanuel leaves behind a reputation as a fiery partisan, but he also bucked liberal leaders on a number of key votes, such as on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Patriot Act extension, bankruptcy reform and Iraq funding without withdrawal timetables.

But Emanuel is being replaced by current Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman John Larson (Conn.), who, while well-liked and generally respected within the caucus, is regarded as far more liberal than Emanuel.

And Larson’s replacement as vice chairman is expected to be Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), a former Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman who leans even further to the left than Larson.

Becerra, who is now assistant to the Speaker, was the only member of the Democratic leadership to vote against the $700 billion financial rescue bill twice, claiming it “fell short of embodying the elements of an economic recovery package that we need for taxpayers, workers, small businesses and homeowners.”

With Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) poised to remain in his post for a second cycle and possibly assume some of Becerra’s present duties as assistant to the Speaker, centrists are privately worrying that they will be less represented at next year’s leadership table than they were in the 110th Congress.