Just finished the class and exam today (passed....barely).  While i never took any of the earlier exams or classes the course material for V7 is essentially death to trees by powerpoint.   There are plenty of websites referenced in the back of the books but the books themselves do not provide any additional information beyond bullets in the pictures or what's contained in the labs.  We had significant issues with some of the labs but i believe most were due to the fact that it was the first time through for the instructor.  I suspect that there will be significant improvements as the feedback makes it back to EC Council.

a clean record, low debt to income ratio, no foreign involvement/travel you don't mind disclosing,U.S. citizenship (includes spouse), and a good recollection of where you have lived and worked for the past 10 years will cover the clearance piece.  A CISSP covers most of the management positions, add a Cisco cert and MCSE and that will cover most of the technician positions.  That's your basic compliance/reporting and sysadmin roles.  If you want to work CND then CEH covers 4 of the 5 CND roles identified in 8570.

I'm betting their primary concern will be slaying the paper dragon and actual security will an after thought.