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Embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York, walked out of his House ethics subcommittee hearing Monday, complaining that he has not had sufficient time to hire a new legal team to respond to corruption allegations.

The subcommittee rejected Rangel's request to delay the hearing until a new defense team is assembled.

Rangel faces 13 allegations, include failing to pay taxes on a home in the Dominican Republic, misuse of a rent-controlled apartment for political purposes and improper use of government mail service and letterhead.

"Fifty years of public service is on the line. And I truly believe that I am not being treated fairly," he declared. "I deserve a lawyer."

He complained that he was not being given enough time to raise funds to hire new lawyers because the committee was rushing to complete its work before the conclusion of the current lame duck Congress.

Rangel's original defense team left him in September.

"What theory of fairness would dictate that I be denied due process ... because it is going to be the end of this session?" he asked.

He later released a statement calling the committee's decision to proceed without delay a violation of "the most basic rights ... guaranteed to every person under the Constitution."

"The (ethics committee) has deprived me of the fundamental right to counsel and has chosen to proceed as if it is fair and impartial and operating according to rules, when in reality they are depriving me of my rights," he claimed.

Ethics committee chair Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, replied that it was Rangel's responsibility to assemble his legal team. She also noted that Rangel had received advice numerous times from the committee on how to raise funds for his defense.

"Retention of counsel is up to the respondent," she said.

Several subcommittee members, however, also blasted Zuckerman Spaeder, the law firm originally representing Rangel.

It is "fundamentally unfair" for lawyers to abandon a client on the eve of a trial, said North Carolina Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a former trial judge. "That would not have happened in my courtroom." We need to "make sure that this firm explains its conduct to the committee."

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, expressed his "astonishment at Zuckerman Spaeder for taking the money ... and then kicking their client to the side of the road when it came time for the actual hearing."

The firm did not respond to CNN's request for a response.

Numerous House Republicans -- as well as some House Democrats -- have called for Rangel to resign because of the alleged ethics violations.

R. Blake Chisam, the committee's chief counsel, told members in the hearing Monday that "there are no genuine issues as to any material facts in this case. As a result, the case is ripe for decision."

Chisam asserted that there's no evidence Rangel was trying "to personally enrich himself." But he believes "the congressman quite frankly was overzealous" in many instances and "at least sloppy in his personal finances."

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I didn't see anything which compared to Cheney's secret energy commission

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California Rep. Darrell Issa plans to greatly expand the scope of federal oversight upon his likely election to chair the oversight committee in the new Congress, he told Politico in an interview.

"I want seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks," Issa said.

Issa's election to chair the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform would herald a significant increase in the committee's activity.

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