Short "git commit $file" syntax fails in the face of a resolved conflict

I have found what seems to be a bug in the short "git commit $file" mode of interaction with git. To reproduce it, you can:

1. Create a repository with some content.

 	$ (mkdir a ; cd a ; git init ; echo hi > file ; git add file ; git commit -m 'initial commit')
 	Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/playground.2009-01-21.w15613/a/.git/
 	Created initial commit 276d6eb: initial commit
 	 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 	 create mode 100644 file

2. Clone that repository.

 	$ git clone a b
 	Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/playground.2009-01-21.w15613/b/.git/

3. Create changes in "a" that are not yet cloned into "b".

 	$ (cd a ; echo ho > file ; git add file ; git commit -m update)
 	Created commit 91deff9: update
 	 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

4. Make changes in "b", the clone.

 	$ echo lol > file
 	$ git add file ; git commit -m 'Some changes'
 	Created commit 5d74b5b: Some changes
 	 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

5. Fetch and merge (AKA pull) from the first repo.

 	$ git pull
 	remote: Counting objects: 5, done.
 	remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
 	Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), done.
 	From /tmp/playground.2009-01-21.w15613/a/
 	   276d6eb..91deff9  master     -> origin/master
 	Auto-merged file
 	CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file
 	Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

6. Resolve the conflict (in our case, by discarding the changes in the "b" 
clone).

 	$ echo ho > file

7. Commit the resolved conflict.

NOTE: The normal way to do step 6 is to "git add file ; git commit -m 
yay". But I will now try to use the "git commit file" shorthand:

 	$ git commit file -m 'Resolved conflict'
 	fatal: cannot do a partial commit during a merge.

8. Declare a bug.

I believe that the "git commit file" command issued in step 6 should have worked as well as the "git add file ; git commit" that us old-time git users do.

9. Discuss on the git list.

Do y'all agree that the git behavior is strange and unnecessarily user-impeding here?

Cheers!

-- Asheesh.

P.S. I'm not the one who ran into the bad behavior here; Nathan (CC:d) is the one who did. You don't have to keep him CC:d, though.