The state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, is getting his race for re-election off to an unusual start by describing his own remarks as “remarkably stupid,” “incredibly moronic,” and “totally offensive.”

Mr. Hevesi was referring to a remark he had made when he described Senator Schumer as someone who would “put a bullet between the president’s eyes, if he could get away with it.”

“We really feel bad for poor Chuck – United States senator. The man who, uh, uh, how do I phrase this diplomatically, will put a bullet between the president’s eyes, if he could get away with it,” Mr. Hevesi told graduating students at Queens College.

Mr. Schumer had spoken a few moments earlier.

Mr. Hevesi held a news conference a few hours later where he apologized for the remark. He said the comment was “blurted out” and was meant to praise Mr. Schumer’s tenacity in standing up to the president on policy issues.

A spokesman for the Secret Service, Jonathan Cherry, would not comment. White House officials did not return calls.

The remark comes as Mr. Hevesi is gearing up for his re-election campaign. His Republican challenger, J. Christopher Callaghan, the treasurer of Saratoga County, called the comment “appalling.” He said: “It’s shocking. You can’t unring a bell. It’s horrid judgment.”

A spokesman for Mr. Schumer, Risa Heller, said, “Comptroller Hevesi was trying to make a point, he went way too far and it was inappropriate and wrong.” Ms. Heller said via e-mail that Mr. Hevesi “has apologized to both the Senator and the President and we believe that ends the matter.”

The flap came as the White House was under criticism from New York politicians over a decision by the Department of Homeland Security to reduce counterterrorism funding for New York City by $83 million.

Mayor Bloomberg suggested the Bush administration is trying to ensure that Republicans in Congress who face tough races have security money to show off in their districts.

“We tried to do an analysis of some of the monies and whether or not they were given out for political reasons,” Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday. “And in fact many of the places where they got money, but arguably there’s no threat, there are close elections at the Senate or House level.”

“Whether that was their motive I have no idea,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “All I can tell you is if you look at their work sheets and it says New York City doesn’t have any high visibility national icons, it sort of defies” logic.

The administration allocated about $124.5 million to New York City, down from about $207.5 million

last year. It increased funding to Louisville, Ky.; Atlanta; Charlotte, and parts of Omaha.

The mayor did not directly attack the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, whose resignation the Daily News called for yesterday. Mr. Bloomberg said: “If we want to get help from people, calling them names is not exactly the right ways to go about it.”

The mayor’s spokesman, Stuart Loeser, said that Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Chertoff spoke on the phone yesterday afternoon. He would not comment on the conversation.

Mr. Chertoff, who was speaking in Washington at the Brookings Institute yesterday, defended the grant decisions and said there was nothing political about how the money was divided.

“We’re building and investing in a capital program,” Mr. Chertoff said. “When you do that, you don’t put the same amount in every year. You put a great amount in to the cities that need it and a lesser amount into the cities that have already received a large initial capital investment.”

He said that New York City has gotten more than $500 million since the program started – more than twice the total received by the next-highest-risk city, Los Angeles – and that its funding is consistent with what it has received in the past.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, who were also playing defense yesterday, said New York State has received roughly $1.2 billion all told and that New York is still rightly getting more money than any other city.

Mr. Chertoff also dismissed calls for his resignation.

“If the standard for whether a secretary kept his job or not was whether a city got the funding it wanted, you’re never going to have a secretary of homeland security,” the secretary said.

Homeland Securities officials say that they evaluated funding requests based on need and plans that were submitted. The department is said to have been dissatisfied with the city’s plan to use the money for police overtime pay and for security cameras in Lower Manhattan to monitor licenses plates and suspicious activity.

Mr. Schumer sent Mr. Chertoff a letter with 11 questions that he wanted answered. New York’s congressional delegation, including the Republicans, demanded that Mr. Chertoff meet with them to explain why New York’s funding was reduced.

Mr. Bloomberg said the city would make decisions about what kind of security was needed and worry about funding later.