That's by design. So they can go after Republicans with the same laws that let Democrats slide.
His problem was that he tried to use the same laws the bigwigs use, but he is not one of them.
His problem was that he was a big fish in a small pond (governor of Illinois), and he became the fall guy for the small fish who was moving up to the big pond (Obama).
Based on what we know now about Obama's truthfulness, I have no doubt that Blagojevich was the bagman for Obama, each to get their cut of the take. When the whole thing blew open, the big fish in the big pond were not going to let Obama go down, so it was Blago who took the fall, with Jesse Jackson, Jr. as collateral damage.
-PJ