Allahpundit covered the original dust-up, here. And, I quote: “Coming next week: ‘The World Trade Center jumpers would want Colorado’s seat to stay Democratic.'”

It is customary to check with the families of the recently brutally murdered before you use them in bolstering your debate talking points:

DENVER (AP) — Sen. Mark Udall on Monday apologized for saying that two reporters beheaded by militants in the Middle East would agree that the United States should not “be impulsive” in responding to their deaths.

Udall, a Democrat, made the comments in an untelevised debate with challenger Rep. Cory Gardner on Saturday night in the western Colorado town of Grand Junction. Udall has been criticized by Republicans for saying the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which currently controls much of Iraq’s heartland, is not an imminent threat to the United States. At the debate, he argued that the two American journalists whose beheadings it filmed and released would agree with him.

“Steve Sotloff and James Foley would tell us, don’t be impulsive,” Udall said. “Horrible and barbarous as those executions were, don’t be impulsive, come up with a plan to knock ISIL back.”

Video of the exchange first surfaced Monday on the conservative web site National Review Online.

Meanwhile, the Sotloff family’s spokesperson is casting doubt on the administration’s version of events on CNN, which makes it harder for the administration to dismiss than if it were only on Fox, which they have a hacky game plan for:

COOPER: When you’ve heard the administration’s response to all of this, what do you make of it from your vantage point?

BARFI: The administration has made a number of inaccurate statements. They’ve said that the families have been consistently and regularly informed. That is not true. I speak now only from the Sotloff family. I can’t speak for the other families. They said that these hostages were moved frequently. we know that most of the beginning of this year; they were stationary. We know that the intelligence community and the White House are enmeshed in a larger game of bureaucratic infighting and Jim and Steve are pawns in that and that’s not fair. If there continues to be leaks, the Sotloff family will have to speak out to set the record straight.