Described in this thread, http://lists.zerezo.com/git/msg737184.html, and this thread, http://lists.zerezo.com/git/msg705275.html, is a problem similar to what I've been seeing today. It seems I can resolve the "conflicting" submodule(s) and continue on, but it is a bit painful as there are a small number of them. I also tried an interactive rebase and assigning a 'pick' entry with the commit I'd like to cherry-pick, and the same problem manifests.
In any case, it seems Jonathan Nieder has potentially identified the problem at http://lists.zerezo.com/git/msg737401.html.
Has a patch come through that addresses this? If one did, did it make it into 1.7.4?
Thanks!
Josh