The official election is more than a year away; but the Democratic party is trouncing the Republics in the CEO money primary. According to Bloomberg News, some of George W. Bush's top 2004 fund-raisers, are now helping Democrats running for president.

Among the 60 executives writing checks to Democrats such as Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois are these formerly pro-Bush CEOs:

• Morgan Stanley's (NYSE: MS) CEO John Mack, a Bush Ranger, held a fund-raiser for Clinton in July. He wrote to his executives "I personally believe that [the best] person [running for president in 2008] is Hillary Clinton."
• Yahoo Inc.'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) former CEO Terry Semel gave $2,000 to Bush in 2004 and $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. Semel has given the maximum, $4,600, to Clinton and $2,300 to Obama.
• News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch, who donated $25,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004, has given Clinton $2,300.

Back in 1982 I was a third-year broker/branch manager with Dean Witter Reynolds (remember that name?) when the announcement came across the tape that Sears, Roebuck, and Co. would in one fell-swoop buy Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker, the real estate giant. Wow, Sears was diversifying in a huge, dramatic way. That move spawned the expression "buy your stocks where you buy your socks!" Dean Witter brokers, Allstate agents (Sears already owned Allstate) and Coldwell Banker agents, all to be found within a Sears department store. The whole thing was a flop, but it took nearly ten years to figure this out.

In the mix, Sears CEO and chairman, Ed Telling, selected a young McKenzie & Co. consultant to run the triumvirate. His name was Philip Purcell and he brought an intelligence and energy to the job second to none. He carefully explained that the glue to the whole thing working out masterfully would be the launch of the Discover card. The Discover card was launched in 1984 with a mega advertising and marketing campaign. If you had a pulse, you got a card.

In the early 1990s, Sears realized the "synergies" of Dean Witter, Dean Witter , and Coldwell Banker just was not working according to the dream. The dream took on a new look as all three companies were spun off or went public. The association with Sears became just a memory. Then in 1997, Phil Purcell engineered the coup of coups: merging "Main Street" Dean Witter with glitterati firm Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Phil was named CEO, another masterful coup. All the while, the Discover card was building itself into a formidable business. The Morgan Stanley white shoe bankers "certainly did not have one in their wallets" was the quote most often heard as the Morgan bankers were annoyed with this low-level credit card.

Former Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) CEO Phil Purcell started his career as a management consultant who jumped to his client, Sears Holdings Corp. (NYSE: SHLD), which implemented a "stocks and socks" strategy. After dumping Purcell in June 2005, his successor John Mack has finally decided to sell Discover on the heels of a 72% increase in its pretax income.

Sears' idea was that people could buy everything from clothing to financial services in a one-stop-shopping experience. To implement the strategy, Sears acquired stock broker Dean Witter in 1981 and in 1986 started a credit card business called Discover. But the strategy did not work, so in 1993 Purcell helped spin out Dean Witter from Sears. In 1997 Purcell merged Dean Witter with Morgan Stanley. The impetus behind the original merger between Dean Witter, a down-market stock brokerage, and blue chip Morgan Stanley always eluded me. But there was a significant amount of discussion -- led by Sanford Weill of Citigroup (NYSE: C) -- that one-stop shopping for financial services was a great idea.

With the stock up 2.6%, the stock market seems to like the idea of getting rid of Discover and using the capital to invest in Morgan Stanley's core strengths. But debt rating agency Fitch Ratings cut Morgan Stanley's credit outlook to "negative," noting Discover generates substantial cash. I think Mack is smart to spinoff Discover when it's showing such great results -- since the shares will get a higher value.

My concern is whether he will be able to find a profitable place to invest the proceeds.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College. He has no financial interest in Morgan Stanley or Sears Holdings and he owns shares in Citigroup.