That's interesting. I'm still investigating, but so far I see that the quotes do work but only without the wildcard character, e.g.: 
Code:
C:\PvK\CatGod\catgod\Debug>catgod "C:\Program Files\dominions3\savedgames\newlords\mid_eriu_0.2h"
Thistletwiss, Queen of the Oceans, the Whirlpool, Patron of Farmers
(null)
Lady of Springs (Body 1370, 65 hits)
Magic:  Water 9  Nature 4
Dominion 5
Scales:  Growth 1  Fortune 1
Dormant
 But if I replace the nation with *, it fails. Maybe I just need to find yet another build setting to tell Windohs to behave better...