In mid-October, the financial behemoth Goldman Sachs hired former Rep. Harold Ford Sr., D-Tenn., according to an early December lobby disclosure filing.

Why did the firm hire Ford -- now a 64-year-old lobbyist who splits his time between Tennessee and Florida? The disclosure form sheds little light. Under "specific lobbying issues" it helpfully explains that Ford will provide "assistance with gathering information and sharing ideas about "government-related activities that impact the financial services industry."

Neither Ford nor Goldman Sachs returned calls seeking comment. But a New York Times article in early December suggests one possibility: Congressional Black Caucus members, according to the Times, made their support for financial services reform contingent on getting Obama administration support for aiding black-owned businesses, including the restructuring of loans by Goldman and GE Capital. Ford and the caucus have a history together: It gave moral and financial support to Ford in the late 1980s and early 1990s in his fight against federal charges of fraud and embezzlement, on which he was ultimately acquitted.

Goldman Sachs has plenty of ways to make its views about financial sector regulation known in Washington. Not only does the executive branch double as an alumni association for the storied financial firm, the company and its partners has showered money on members of Congress

The Center for Responsive Politics ranks the firm fourth on the list of top campaign contributors, having doled out $31 million over 10 years. It spent $3.4 million last year to hire not only a fleet of in-house lobbyists -- led by the former assistant staff director of the House Financial Services Committee Michael Paese -- but also roughly a dozen private firms, including some of the biggest names on K Street, including the Gephardt Group, the Duberstein Group and Elmendorff Strategies.