On Sunday, Republican senatorial candidate Josh Mandel denounced those raising environmental concerns about fracking in Ohio as “extremists.”

On Monday, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich mapped out a political strategy with the Ohio Republican delegation based on pushing more oil and gas drilling.

On Tuesday, Gov. John Kasich learned that the U.S. Forest Service has opened up Ohio’s Wayne National Forest to fracking. The Republican governor’s reaction?

“I’d have to know exactly what they’re talking about in terms of drilling. In our parks, they’re going to make sure that they’ve got a protocol that they’re doing everything they can that they don’t disrupt the parks. You know we don’t want to drill in Lake Erie.”

And he said he’s willing the play hardball with oil men.

“When you look at the regulations around fracking, with high pressure pipelines, gathering lines and fracking fluid its tougher than even they have in Colorado. So I’m really pleased about it and we have to get it done right. And as I told the companies that were fighting regulations, you don’t want to have regulations,, you not going to get any permits. (they said) would you do that. I said, what do you think I’d do.”

And Kasich still expects he’ll get the hike in taxes on oil and gas that he wants.

“It’s gonna happen, I just don’t know exactly when, but we are going to get a severance tax and an income tax cut from that.”

Solid fiscal conservative cred
But it’s the second part of that equation – tax cuts -- that Kasich is expected to emphasize in his seven-to- eight minute speech tonight. Kasich expects to underscore his fiscal conservative credentials

“It’s a philosophy that if you reduce costs and you provide incentives for job creation and you don’t regulate people to death that you can have success. This is sort of the American story.”

But, the governor had a but, including support for the government’s support of the auto industry.

“You can’t come from Ohio or come from Pittsburgh and don’t realize the sensitive nature of manufacturing. You know one thing people don’t know about me is that in 2001, I worked very closely with the steel companies to get a tariff restriction on foreign imports. I’m not just a flat-out free-trader. In fact, I’ve told Romney, and you saw it  in Powell (Ohio Saturday), where he really whacked the Chinese for cheating on trade, you know I’ve encouraged him on that.  There are industries that are critical to us and there’s a right time to help them and a right way to help them."

Having a ball
As is often the case in a Kasich press conference, the topics veered, reporters laughed, and the governor gave every indication he’s enjoying his time in office.

I’m not worried about my political future. At some point you’re going to figure that it’s just not that important to me. I’m going to do the best job I can do for this state. … I didn’t even want to run for this job. I had a really nice life, but I felt this was what was expected of me. I don’t want to get carried away here, but I have to tell you honestly this is what I thought the Lord wanted me to do.

And not sweating a speech 
And he says he’s not worried about blowing tonight’s speech to the GOP convention either – even those he described the speeches he’s given at two other conventions as not successful.

“The real challenge at a convention for anybody if you’re not the keynoter or the nominee or the vice presidential nominee is the fact that people have a lot they’re doing on the floor. And they’re moving around and there’s lots of noise. So I was thinking yesterday, maybe I’ll just just say, “Hey! Quiet down!, but I don’t think that will go over.”

And if that doesn’t work, he says he’ll take comfort in the idea that the sun will still come up tomorrow. And, he hinted, that he has more big surprises in store for Ohio.