Thanks. I'll keep this in my back pocket. I ended up with this which seems to work at the moment,
var tabStrip = $("#defaultMenuItems").data("kendoTabStrip");
for (var idx = 0; ; ++idx) {
var tab = tabStrip.contentElement(idx);
if (tab == null)
break;
if (tab == e.contentElement) {
//current tab logic - just let it go
}
else {
//all other tabs
$(tab).html("");
}
}