The Kennedy clan's war of words has been stepped up by Congressman Joseph Kennedy. He used a press conference to hit back at his cousin, the son of the late US president, John F. Kennedy. It was John Kennedy jnr who led the family into war with an attack on two cousins - both sons of the assassinated presidential candidate, Senator Robert Kennedy - whom he described as "poster boys for bad behaviour".
He used the columns of his own glossy political magazine, George, to criticise the scandal-prone brothers, Joseph and Michael.
Joseph Kennedy, who plans to run for governor of Massachusetts, was pilloried by his cousin over the break-up of his marriage. His ex-wife claims she was forced into a politically-motivated annulment. Michael Kennedy was lambasted for an affair with a teenage babysitter which ended his marriage.
Joseph Kennedy used the press conference in Boston this week to counter-attack and parodied President Kennedy's words when he said: "I guess my first reaction was `Ask not what you can do for your cousin but what you can do for his magazine'."
Joseph Kennedy said he regarded his cousin as "my friend" and added: "This is the sort of the normal give and take of politics."
Michael Kennedy, whose affair with the babysitter led to a statutory rape investigation by police, refused to respond to John Kennedy's attack.
In his article, John suggested that his cousins got into trouble by chasing "an idealised alternative to their life".
He wrote: "One left an embittered wife. Another, in what looked to be a hedge against mortality, fell in love and surrendered his judgement in the process."
The Kennedys, who have suffered more than their share of tragedies and scandal, usually stick together.
John's father, President Kennedy, allegedly had an affair with Marilyn Monroe and a mobster's moll.
Senator Robert Kennedy is also said to have had an affair with Monroe when he was a member of JFK's "Camelot cabinet".
John jnr's cousin, Willie Smith, son of the US ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, was cleared of rape after a highly publicised trial in 1991.