Rove, the top strategist for former President George W. Bush, is to be inducted at a ceremony Wednesday night at the annual Norsk Hostfest in Minot, North Dakota, billed as North America's largest Scandinavian cultural festival.

Rove is adopted, so it isn't clear whether he is of Scandinavian descent. But he said his adoptive father, Louis, was of Norwegian ancestry and used to read to him literature from Iceland and Norway as a child. Louis Rove died in 2004.

"It's more of an honor for my father," Rove said. "The last big trip we ever did together was to Norway."

State Democratic Party Director Joe Aronson calls Rove a "political attack dog" and said elected public officials in North Dakota should be "held accountable for rewarding Rove for being a hatchet man."

"Karl Rove is a divisive, vicious, political operative," Aronson said Tuesday. "These elected officials are associating themselves with him. I think it is my job as party spokesperson to question that judgment."

Rove declined to respond to the criticism, saying it's not a time for politics.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, a Republican who has known Rove for more than 35 years, plans to introduce Rove. Stenehjem, who was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame in 2007, said the Hostfest decides on hall inductees independently.

"It was never intended to be, nor is it a political event," Stenehjem said.

At a news conference in Minot, Rove said he's honored to be introduced by Stenehjem, who was his roommate in 1974 in Alexandria, Virginia.

"I'm sorry that he's had to take some potshots because of our friendship," Rove said, "but I'm going to leave politics out of it."

Rove also said he has an appreciation for all things Norse. Except lutefisk.

"Any food that's key element is lye takes an acquired taste," Rove said of the dried cod dish that is reconstituted by soaking it in the alkaline solution.