The difference between Harry Reid and Trent Lott.

When Reid made his "unfortunate comments", he was making an observation of fact: That in our country, black people who are light skinned and speak the middle/upper class dialect of English are at a social and political advantage over those who are darker or who have "ghetto" manners of speech. Yes, I'm sure both of these facts are uncomfortable for many of us to contemplate, and he could have phrased his observation better, but they're still objectively true.

Trent Lott, on the other hand, was expressing an opinion. Specifically, the opinion that America would have been a better place if an avowed racist running on a "Segregation Forever!" platform had won the presidency. _That's_ why he got hounded out of his leadership position.