Hillary Clinton's fellow Democrats smell blood in the water after her recent gaffes over her considerable wealth and they began pouncing on the presidential hopeful on Monday.

Dick Harpootlian, a former Democratic Party chairman in South Carolina, framed his insult in terms the fictional aristocratic Crawley family and their servants could understand.

'I don't know whether it's just that she's been "Madam Secretary" for so long, but she's generating an imperial image,' Harpootlian told The Washington Post.

'She's been living 30, going on 40 years with somebody bringing your coffee to you every morning. Is it more Downton Abbey than it is America?'

Harpootlian, like more than half of the Democratic establishment, backed President Barack Obama in his epic battle with Hillary for the 2008 presidential nomination.

He's also an ally of Vice President Joe Biden, who took his cue Monday morning and asked the audience at the White House's 'Working Families Summit' to cut him some slack because his personal wealth falls short of the Clintons'.