As U.S. District Judge James Zagel accepted the not guilty plea, Cellini stood with his defense lawyer, Dan Webb.

“I had a glass of beer last night,” Cellini told Zagel, saying he had no problem following the court proceedings. The three talked as if they knew each other well. They do.

Cellini is accused of helping shake down a Hollywood producer and politically connected Chicago investor Thomas Rosenberg for $1.5 million in campaign cash for Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Cellini also is accused as a point man in a plot to remove U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald as federal prosecutor.

Watching Webb, Zagel and Cellini, there was nothing to tell you they go way back. The only guy missing was the bandleader, former Gov. Big Jim Thompson, Webb’s boss at Winston & Strawn. Thompson often gets miffed when I mention him, so I can almost hear him on the phone, growling, “Kass, I ain’t no bandleader.”

Cellini really began to pile up the cash when then-Gov. Thompson gave him a state gaming license. Webb and Zagel were young prosecutors under then-U.S. Atty. Thompson. Later, Zagel was director of the state’s Department of Revenue under Thompson. Webb ran the State Police.

Everybody knows somebody. So, no, Illinois politics isn’t a Robert Ludlum novel.

Illinois is Six Degrees of Bill Cellini.