ALBANY - Former New York Senate leader Joseph Bruno stepped out of political retirement Thursday to warn Republicans at their national convention that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is like disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Obama, like Spitzer, is “fancy, dancey, prancey,” using glitzy Hollywood trappings to mask a lack of substance necessary to be a chief executive, Bruno said.

Voters “have been hoodwinked before and they shouldn't be hoodwinked again,” the 79-year-old Republican who is known for his colorful language told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after he addressed the New York delegation.

Comparing the Democratic nominee to the fallen governor, Bruno told Republicans: “Who was more articulate than (Spitzer)? Who was more charismatic ... Who had the best Hollywood ads that money could buy? And you know what, for those of you in the press, don't forget it. Articulate. Fancy. Dancey. Prancey. All those kinds of things that made him - 70 percent of the vote. Broke a record, OK? Why? Marketing. Selling. Think about it. Was that for real? Was it?”

Bruno, who eroded Spitzer's historic level of popularity in 2007, retired as New York's most powerful Republican this summer.

Spitzer resigned in March after he was named in a prostitution investigation.

He was already dogged by a political scandal in which two of his top aides were accused of misusing state police to conduct political espionage against Bruno.

“We are now here with somebody who is extremely articulate, says all the right things, uses all the right buzz words,” Bruno said from St. Paul. “And (Obama) is doing a great job of marketing - that's not to diminish him as an individual who has come from where he is, it's much to his credit.”

Bruno, who was raised in poverty in upstate New York but eventually built a lucrative telecommunications company before turning to politics full time, told Republicans that Obama doesn't match the real accomplishments of Republican nominee John McCain.

“People aren't listening many times to people in the front lines and the trenches,” Bruno told the AP. “But I know damn well what I'm saying resonates with people in the streets.

“You have to take the gloves off,” said Bruno, an Army boxing champion during the Korean War, “because now it's real.”