http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12928
--- Comment #7 from Robert M. Muncrief rmuncrief@comcast.net 2008-05-03 11:56:52 --- Created an attachment (id=12675) --> (http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=12675) git bisect output identifying errant patch
Sorry about my previous error. I've attached the bisect output for the correct error.
The comment for the patch is "msi: Add initial implementation of MsiPublishAssemblies." and since I don't know how to rewind before a specific patch I just brute force replaced the dll/ msi, msimg32, msimtf, and msisys.ocx directories, and include/ msi.h, msidefs.h, msinkaut.h, msinkaut.idl, and msiquery.h files with ones from a good installation, recompiled, and the problem went away and I was able to install MS Office 2003.
So it appears the problem indeed has something to do with this patch.