Regulators at the Federal Communications Commission should promptly and emphatically reject Comcast’s proposed purchase of rival Time Warner Cable, Common Cause said today.

“This is so over the top that it ought to be dead on arrival at the FCC. The proposed deal runs roughshod over competition and consumer choice and is an affront to the public interest,” said Michael Copps, special adviser to Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative.

The $45 billion dollar deal would turn the already oversized Comcast empire into a colossus. The combined firms would have the muscle to push competitors out of the marketplace, leaving consumers exposed to continuing price hikes and declining levels of service, Copps added.

As an FCC Commissioner in 2011, Copps cast the lone vote against Comcast’s merger with NBC/Universal. That deal made the combined company the nation’s largest Internet, home phone and video provider and gave it control of a major television network, cable TV channels and movie studio.