So I found myself with the results a bad choice: "Hey, THAT bleeding edge package update will suit my needs perfectly!" Well it did not. So I downgraded:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/apt/sources.list
[ disable the repository that I got the package from]
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo dpkg -P --force-depends the-package
[insert various warnings here]
$sudo apt-get install the-package

Carefull here. Note the '-P' switch meaning 'PURGE config'. Backup your valued configs first! I needed to purge the configs because I knew that they may not have been compatible between versions.

Ok, now what about the numerous dependencies that I did not pay any attention to during the upgrade? I want to make sure they are back to their original versions also. What I really wanted was a way to list all installed packages that have version numbers greater that what is in the APT cache(in the repository). Enter 'apt-show-versions'.

$ sudo apt-get install apt-show-versions
$ apt-show-versions | grep ' newer '
lib-the-package 3.1415-9 newer than version in archive
...

Excellent. Now just remove and reinstall.