Jfk Jr. Calls Kin `Poster Boys For Bad Behavior'

NEW YORK - John F. Kennedy Jr. pillories his family's recent "bad behavior" in the upcoming issue of his political magazine, George.

In the September issue of the magazine he founded and edits, Kennedy speculates that his cousin Michael Kennedy, accused of an affair with an underage baby-sitter, "was looking for a hedge against mortality." He "fell in love with youth and surrendered his judgment in the process," John Kennedy writes.

Michael Kennedy has only acknowledged "serious mistakes" in his dealings with the former baby-sitter, now 19 and in college. He has refused all requests for interviews and has an unlisted number.

John Kennedy suggests that Michael and another cousin, Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass., "chased an idealized alternative to their life." Joseph Kennedy's ex-wife has said the congressman asked for annulment of their marriage for political reasons.

John Kennedy calls both cousins "poster boys for bad behavior."

In response today, Joseph Kennedy said, "I guess my first reaction was `Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine.' "

John Kennedy posed, apparently nude, for a photograph that accompanies his article. He shows only limbs, chest and face as he ponders a dangling apple.

"I've learned a lot about temptation recently, but that doesn't make me desire any less," he writes cryptically.

The public criticism of Kennedy behavior by a Kennedy was unusual in a family that historically has circled the wagons against outside attacks.

Kennedy's father, President John F. Kennedy, was said to have had dalliances with Marilyn Monroe and one-time mobster girlfriend Judith Exner. His grandfather, Joseph Kennedy Sr., had an affair with actress Gloria Swanson.

His uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., drove a car off a Chappaquiddick, Mass., bridge in 1969, and a female campaign worker drowned.

Joseph Kennedy, who has gubernatorial aspirations, went before a state Democratic convention in June to apologize for his own divorce and his brother's alleged actions.

Meanwhile, Michael and his wife, Victoria, announced an "amicable" separation after a 16-year marriage and three children. Sex with a person under 16 is statutory rape in Massachusetts. The baby-sitter's parents declined to press charges.